title: Copepod population in Vellar estuary, Parangipettai coast in relation to environmental conditions.
abstract: Distribution and abundance of copepods were studied in relation to environmental conditions at two different ecosystems viz: Neritic (Bay of Bengal) and estuarine (Vellar estuary) of Parangipettai coast from September, 1998 toAugust, 2000. Over the study period, total 85 species of copepods were reported. Among these, the calanoid copepods constituted the major component with 63.52% followed by cyclopoids (29.41%) and harpacticoids (7.05%). The copepods population density was found to be high (2, 53,000 org l(-1)) in estuarine water, while the species diversity was higher (5.47) in neritic water. The observed spatio-temporal variations in the population density and species diversity of copepods were more related to the environmental state of respective study area.
authors.affiliation: Department of Marine Science, School of Marine Sciences, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli-620 024, India. sanplankton@yahoo.co.in
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Santhanam
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Perumal
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ananth
authors.forename: A Shenbaga
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Devi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D033342:Copepoda / Q000145:classification; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D063366:Estuaries; D007194:India; D011157:Population Dynamics; D013045:Species Specificity