Relationship between macrobenthos and abiotic characteristics of river Alaknanda in a stretch from Chamoli to Devprayag in Garhwal Himalayan region of Uttarakhand, India (original) (raw)

Macrobenthos is the best water quality indicator for ecosystem health assessment. The present study aimed to examine the interrelationship between macrobenthos and different water quality parameters of the river Alaknanda at Garhwal Himalaya. Four demarcated sampling zones viz. zone-A (Chamoli to Nandprayag), zone-B (Karanprayag to Rudraprayag), zone-C (Rudraprayag to Srinagar) and zone-D (Srinagar to Devprayag) were taken from its approximately 170 km long stretch during 2016-2018. River water characteristics were analyzed for the important parameters viz. substratum, water temperature (WT), water velocity, pH, electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), calcium (Ca), and magnesium (Mg) using standard methods. The results indicated that the river water velocity was the highest 1.02 m/s at zone-C, TDS of 114.19 mgl-1 was maximum at zone-A ; and Ca and Mg were recorded highest 23.17 mgl-1 and 5.44 mgl-1 at zone-A and zone-B, respectively. All abiotic parameters (pH, ...