Temporal Composition and Distribution of Benthic Macroinvertebrates in Wetlands

Studies on the composition, distribution and seasonality of the benthic invertebrates of the Nangal wetland were undertaken for two years from February 2013 to January 2015. Twenty-four genera of benthic macroinvertebrates were recorded, out of which five belonged to Ephemeropteras, two to Plecoptera, five to Hemiptera, three to Diptera, two to Tricoptera, two to Coleoptera, one to Araneae, one to Odonata, two to Annelida and one to Gastropoda. The range, mean and standard deviation of macrobenthos have been recorded. The abundance of macroinvertebrates ranged between 79 and 534 individuals/m² (mean 297 [RS1]individuals/m²) during 2013-14 and 109-612 individuals/m² (mean 400 individuals/m²) during 2014-15. Statistical relationship between different physico-chemical parameters and macroinvertebrates was also computed. The Simpson's index ranged from 0.9428 during 2013-14 to 0.9493 during 2014-15. The Shannon index was 3.117 during 2013-14 and 3.154 during 2014-15, which indicates that the wetland is moderately polluted that further affects the occurrence of benthic macroinvertebrates.