Abstract:
This study first time describes the free living marine nematodes present in the bank (sediment) of Ambrah Creek, Ghorabari, Thatta. The nematodes were sorted out from the soil samples during the period of 2003-2005. The results showed 4 orders, 9 families, 9 genera and 10 species of nematodes with various unidentified species. The orders were recognized as Enoplida (45.86%), Chromadorida (17.67%), Monhysterida (11.78%), Plectida (3.13%) whereas 21.55% nematodes remained unidentified. The hydrographic parameters, pH, temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen were also measured from the creeks water. The combination of fine sand and clay size sediments of Ambrah Creek presented low diversity of free living nematode, while density of the nematode seemed to increase during winter months with respect to low temperature and high salinity. In aquatic environments the free living nematodes are most diverse, but remained relatively unstudied (Heip et al., 1985). They are small in size but play a significant part in the diet of many aquatic organisms (Gee, 1989), and in turn facilitate the mineralization of organic matter (Riera and Hubas, 2003). Nematodes depend on the water films around soil or organic material and move within existing pathways of soil pores of 25 to 100 µm diameter (Neher, 2010). Besides an important group of meiofauna, until now very little work has been carried out on the aquatic nematodes present near the coastal zones of Pakistan . In Pakistan Maqbool and Kazi (2000) described the distribution of free living nematodes from various coastal localities of Sindh and Balochistan. Their occurrence in Ambrah Creek, Ghorabari has not been reported until now. The purpose of the study is to investigate the existence of free living nematodes in the Ambrah Creek area and to find out the hydrographic effect on their abundance.
Page(s):
639-643
DOI:
DOI not available
Published:
Journal: International Journal of Biology and Biotechnology, Volume: 14, Issue: 4, Year: 2017
Keywords:
Ghorabari
,
Ambrah creek
,
Thatta
,
Freeliving marine nematodes