Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

A STUDY ON WATER QUALITY AND MACROPHYTE DIVERSITY INTHREE WETLANDS OF SAMBALPUR DISTRICT, ODISHA FROMECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT PERSPECTIVE

Rajalaxmi Badra, Jijnasa Panda and Sunanda Sahoo,

Abstract

Manmade wetlands provide many services that contribute to human well-being and poverty alleviation.Some groups of people, particularly those living near wetlands, are highly dependent on these services andare directly harmed by their degradation. We assessed overall ecological condition of two lentic and onelotic wetlands present in the periphery of Sambalpur town, Odisha, India. Wetland macrophytes weresampled through 1x1m2 quadrates and water quality parameters were studied following “Guide manual:water and wastewater analysis” by CPCB and APHA (1998)”. In the phytosociological study, 43 species ofmacrophytes were recorded belonging to 20 families in the 3 study sites. Both the lentic wetlands showedhighest diversity indices in postmonsoon period with emergent plants outnumbering free floating andsubmerged plants. This indicated that the hydrodynamic forces in lentic wetlands were not enough touproot the emergent plants. The present work showed that macrophytic diversity being negatively correlatedby all most all water quality parameters studied indicating considerable anthropogenic impact on thesesystems. Further PCA biplot showed large positive loadings on component 1 by water conductivity, TSS,TDS, NO3, and BOD that caused regionalization of three wetlands namely Durgapali pond (Site I), Kanjhurinalia/ canal (Site II), and Gobindtola canal (Site III) of Sambalpur town indicating differential antropogenicimpact as per their need. The study emphasized on immediate management of these wetlands specificallythe small lotic wetlands for promoting water health.