Integrated studies on the biotic and abiotic components for management of pulicat lagoon ecosystem south india

Abstract

India has a coastline of 7516 6 km touching 13 states and 2 union territories East coast of India lies between the Eastern Ghats and the Bay of Bengal and extends from the Ganges delta to Kanyakumari Chilika Lake and Pulicat lagoon are the important water bodies of the east coast Besides all the benefits lagoons face a lot of ecological crisis such as lake mouth closure siltation shrinkage damages and pollution of the lake over fishing pressure obstructing migratory fisheries variation in water quality etc To maintain and enhance the distinctive nature of a lagoon it is important to know about its biotic and abiotic wealth This research work aims to understand the same for Indias second largest lagoon the Pulicat lagoon which straddles the border of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu states in south India This lake shows a varied geomorphology which results in its notable geo bio diversity Using Remote Sensing and GIS the Biotic and Abiotic component of Pulicat lake have been analyzed and the changes often taken place in the areal extent of this lagoon the biotic and abiotic component of the lake in different seasons and the mineralogy texture and the geo technical properties of the lake sediments have also been studied newline