Macrobenthos and Environmental Drivers in the Rushikulya Estuary, India

43 macrobenthic taxa were documented across four seasons in the Rushikulya estuary, a mass-nesting site for Olive Ridley turtles. The study by Pragyan Priyadarshini, last updated in 2026, identified polychaetes as the dominant group (66.97%) and correlated macrofauna distribution with salinity, nitrite, sand, and silt.

Use Cases

• Modeling relationships between macrobenthic community structure and environmental variables like salinity and nitrite.
• Assessing ecological health and disturbance levels in tropical estuaries using M-AMBI and AMBI indices.
• Establishing a biodiversity baseline for monitoring climate change impacts in rookery-associated estuaries.
• Identifying key environmental drivers influencing spatiotemporal variations in macrobenthic fauna.

Strengths

• Contains data on 43 distinct macrobenthic taxa.
• Spatiotemporal coverage includes sampling across four seasons.
• Analysis includes specific correlation results (Rho 0.672) with key environmental drivers.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The dataset is small (14.6 KB), indicating limited scope.

Provenance

Source

figshare, authored by Pragyan Priyadarshini.

Collection Method

Field study analyzing macrobenthic community and environmental parameters.

Time Range

Study spanned four seasons; specific years not provided.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-28 04:52:44; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Rushikulya estuary, on the eastern coast of India in southern Odisha.