Status of Andaman Sea ecology: Past, present and future

Abstract

In recent years, marine resources have become increasingly interesting, as they are rightly predicted to be a major source of food, reservoir of minerals, major suppliers of oxygen, regulator of climate and also ultimate dumping ground for the mounting burden of human waste material. Due to unchecked human activity in recent years, physico-chemical as well biological status of these marine environments have changed significantly, which in turn resulted in the changing environmental scenario of the world. The Andaman Sea is known to be a part of Bay of Bengal. This Bay is one of the largest Bay in the world and is known to receive large flow of sediments from several rivers and other water bodies from India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Indonesia, etc. Many of these rivers bring along with them, a large quantity of effluents from cities/town located on either side of these rivers, thus making the Bay nutrient rich. This Bay also plays a major role in determining the climatic conditions of India and other South East Asian countries. Thus, its ecology is of paramount interest. Apart from the above, the Bay is also known for its oligotrophic nature as well low productivity, thus resulting in high diversity of flora and fauna. As the ecological status of the Bay has a direct bearing on life-scape of the Bay, a study was undertaken to understand the ecological status of the Bay. In addition to the above, it is also known that there are certain member of zooplankton species, which are known to act as bioindicators, indicating the quality of water in environment. Thus, an attempt has also been made in the present studies to understand such bioindicators, which will throw light on the status of abiotic factors of the Bay. Based on the observations, the study recommends certain appropriate measures to be taken to conserve the ecology of one of the largest Bay in the world.