Polychaete diversity in Indian estuaries

This paper provides a comprehensive account of the diversity of estuarine polychaetes of India. Information on polychaetes is available only from 8 estuaries out of 33 on the east coast and only from 4 out of 34 on the west coast. 153 species of polychaetes occur in Indian estuaries, representing about 37.46% of the total polychaetes present in Indian seas. While 119 species were found to occur only in east coast estuaries, 11 species were found only in the west coast estuaries. Twenty-three species were found to occur in the estuaries of both the coasts. Besides increasing the extent of coverage on the distribution of polychaetes from other Indian estuaries, there is also a strong need to understand the variations in their diversity in relation with environmental changes, especially in terms of pollution. This could become possible only with application of tools like genetic and biochemical make-up and improved statistical analyses to explain variability of diversity of polychaetes in space and time.

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