ICEH Papers

BIO-MONITORING APPROACHES FOR WATER QUALITY ASSESSMENT IN TWO WATERBODIES AT TIRUVANNAMALAI, TAMIL NADU INDIA


Ramakrishnan, N. “Bio-Monitoring Approaches For Water Quality Assessment In Two Waterbodies At Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu India” in Martin J. Bunch, V. Madha Suresh and T. Vasantha Kumaran, eds., Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Environment and Health, Chennai, India, 15-17 December, 2003. Chennai: Department of Geography, University of Madras and Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University. Pages 374 – 385.

Abstract:

Most parts of Tamil Nadu face scarcity of drinking water due to conflicts over usage and degradation of water resources. The level of degradation of water resources can be quantified by bio-monitoring technology more than conventional chemical methods. The use of living organisms for monitoring and surveillance of water quality originated from and is used extensively in western countries only, so this attempt is to evaluate the efficacy of a bio-monitoring approach to monitor the water quality in our area’s water resources.

In this present investigation several biological communities including phytoplankton, periphyton, microphytobenthos and aquatic macrophytes have had been considered apart from the various physico-chemical factors like water temperature, pH, alkalinity, free CO2, dissolved oxygen, nitrate, phosphate and calcium assessments of water quality in two freshwater bodies at Tiruvannamalai from April 2000 to March 2001. From the basic biological data various pollution indices like Saprobic index, Nyggard's index, Palmers algal pollution index, biological index and Shannon-Weiner index were calculated to quantify the water quality of the water bodies.

Results showed that the bio-monitoring approaches with the chemical analysis for a 12 months period in two water bodies produced many significant correlations indicating 32 of the 40 comparisons between biological pollution indices (5 kinds) and chemical analysis (8 parameters) were statistically significant (r > 0.316; p £ 0.05). The Nyggard's index and biological index were significantly correlated with all physico-chemical parameters (r>0.356; p £ 0.05). Shannon - Weiner index was significantly (r > 0.415 and 0.327) associated with phytoplankton population density in all combinations.

Considering all the parameters and biotic indices it was clearly shown that the water body II was less polluted than the I water body. The bio-monitoring approach was not static. This can be further modified to suit our area to monitor the quality of water in it’s natural condition for the particular usage of water.

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