Indian Journal of Marine Sciences 

About: Indian Journal of Marine Sciences is an academic journal. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Estuary & Bay. Over the lifetime, 959 publications have been published receiving 11135 citations.

Potential microbial diversity in mangrove ecosystems: a review.

Abstract: Mangroves provide a unique ecological niche to different microbes which play various roles in nutrient recycling as well as various environmental activities. Mangrove forests are large ecosystems distributed in 112 countries and territories comprising a total area of about 181,000 km is over a quarter of the total coastline of the world. The highly productive and diverse microbial community living in mangrove ecosystems continuously transforms nutrients from dead mangrove vegetation into sources of nitrogen, phosphorous and other nutrients that can be used by the plants and in turn the plant-root exudates serve as a food source for the microbes. Analysis of microbial biodiversity from these ecosystems will help in isolating and identifying new and potential microorganisms having high specificity for various applications. The present study consists literature on diversity of predominant microbes such as bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes from mangrove ecosystems.

Effect of temperature, salinity and light intensity on the growth of Gracilaria spp. (Gracilariales, Rhodophyta) from Japan, Malaysia and India

Abstract: Species of Gracilaria Greville were collected from Japan, India and Malaysia. Growth rate experiments were conducted at different temperatures, salinities and light intensities. Gracilaria vermiculophylla was found to be the fastest growing species with a growth rate of 22.32%. The growth rates of all species varied with salinities, but most of them attained their optimum growth rates at a normal seawater salinity 35‰. During the temperature tolerance experiments, it was observed that only G. vermiculophylla had a high temperature tolerance limit of up to 35°C. The temperate and the tropical species of Gracilaria were divided into three groups depending upon their optimum growth rates at the optimum temperatures. Group I consisting of G. arcuata and G. textorii from Japan with optimum growth rates at 20°C. Group II consisting of G. vermiculophylla, G. incurvata from Japan and G. foliifera, G. corticata from India with optimum growth rates at 25°C, while group III consisting of G. edulis from India and G. lichenoides from Malaysia with optimum growth rates at 30°C.

Propagation of tides in the Cochin estuarine system, southwest coast of India

Abstract: Analysis of hourly data on sea level collected at four stations in the Cochin estuarine system has been made to understand the tidal and non-tidal sea level variations inside the estuary, for spring and neap phases during March 2000. Spring phase was dominated by semi-diurnal tides whereas neap phase was dominated by diurnal tides. Diurnal and semi-diurnal bands were together responsible for a high percentage of variance of the observed sea level. The dominance of shallow water tides was seen with increasing distance from the mouth. The sea level variance was dominated mainly by tidal signals, but the tidal influence decreased rapidly inside the estuary. Doodson's X o filter appears to be efficient for de-tiding the observed sea level time series.

Application of remote sensing data to monitor mangroves and other coastal vegetation of India

Abstract: Remote sensing data, because of its repetitive, synoptic and multi-spectral nature, has proved to be of an immense value in monitoring of coastal vegetation. Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS) data have been extensively used to map mangroves and other coastal vegetation for the entire country’s coastline. Large database on spatial extent of mangroves and their condition has been created on 1:250,000, 1:50,000 and 1:25,000 scale using IRS data (the database provides information for the first time on the mangrove areas of the entire Indian coast). Based on this study, it was observed that the Kori creek, Gujarat, has large area under mangroves. The repetitive nature of the data has helped in monitoring vital and critical areas, periodically. In one such study, on the Marine National Park, in the Gulf of Kachchh, mangrove areas were monitored for the last 25 years. The degradation of mangroves continued up to 1985 and the condition significantly improved due to the adoption of conservation measures. This has helped in planning various management actions to conserve this vital ecosystem. IRS data have been used in identifying dominant plant communities in many mangrove areas such as Bhitarkanika, Coringa, Mandovi estuary in Goa and the Gulf of Kachchh, etc. This is a unique approach for providing spatial information at plant community level and can be seen as a first step towards bio-diversity assessment. Along with the mangroves, seaweed, seagrass beds and dune vegetation have also been mapped with reasonable accuracy. With the better sensors planned for future, remote sensing-based information is going to be one of the major inputs in the preparation of management action plans.

Assessment of metal concentration in the sediment cores of Manakudy estuary, south west coast of India.

Abstract: Base line data on the metal concentration was obtained from three core sediments (S1, S2 and S3) of Manakudy estuary on the south west coast of India. The acid leachable trace metals (Cr, Cu, Ni, Co, Pb, Zn and Cd) showed peak values at sulphidic phase . There is moderate level of pollution related to anthropogenic activities. The trace metals were associated with Fe and Mn indicating their adsorption onto Fe-Mn oxyhydroxides. The correlation of trace metals with sulphur indicates that they were precipitated as metal sulphides. Correlation matrix showed elegant association between trace metals and Fe, Mn, S and mud. The Igeo values revealed that all the core samples fell within uncontaminated to moderately contaminated category. The concentration factor was low (Cf i <1) indicating low contamination in the core samples. The anthropogenic factor (AF) values indicate moderate anthropogenic inputs.