Current World Environment

Introduction

Waterbodies serves as habitat for a varying number of aquatic organisms ranging from microscopic plankton to large aquatic animals and macrophysics³ According to NWP (2002), supply of fresh drinking water to most of the living beings should be the first priority on any available water reservoir. The safe and reliable sources of water availability  are an essential pre-requisite for the establishment of a stable community⁵

There is a definite permissible limit of different organic and inorganic substance in water which can tolerated for drinking water. The characteristic of water quality of aquatic environments  is a results of  interactions of physical, chemical and biological properties.⁶

Deep sense of knowledge  and the importance of water for sustenance of life pertaining to the need for conservation of water bodies especially the fresh water bodies is now realized everywhere in many parts of the country. There is less than 5% of fresh water available to uses and confined in the ice caps, glaciers and groundwater. Most of the remainder is in lakes, streams and soil moister .The global water scenario is very much alarming.¹⁰

The plan  on Indian lake management provides detail and integrated approach to lake management including their safeguard and conservation but not limited to exotic weed control, water quality monitoring and aquatic vegetation surveying⁴

Wetlands are considered as one of the most diverse biological ecosystems on the planet earth. They  inhabits a diverse fauna and flora, including so many threatened species of plant and animals.Wetlands also provides important ecological  services, including storage of water, sequestration of carbonsediments trapping and mitigating the harmful effects of dangerous pesticides and other types of household pollution through biodegradation and bio magnification. Although wetlands accounts only 6% of the total available land area, their value is estimated to cost between 49 billion to 3.4 trillion Euros per year, measured as the budget needed if these services were to be replaced³

The aim of this study is to assess the quality of water which affects the floral and faunal diversity of the lake.

Material and Method

Sampling Area

Study area

The present investigation was carried out to examine the status of the highly pollution affected Lake water of Allahabad district. Allahabad district is situated between 25.4358° N, 81.8463° E Longitude and 98 meter asl. (Fig. 1). The water of the present lake is being used for industries, agriculture, fisheries and partially for domestic uses.

Sample collection

Samples from the Macferson Lake  of were collected from four selected sites during Jan 2017 to June 2017. All the precautions were taken with great care during the sampling. The collected water samples were lab analyzed for different physico chemical parameters viz. pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solid, temperature, alkalinity and biological oxygen demand by following the standard protocols. All the above analyses were performed in triplicate.

Figure 1: Map of Macferson Lake, Allahabad, U. P.  India  Click here to View figure

Result and Discussion

During this study temperature ranged from 27.75 to 28.50°C.Many scientist reported similar findings with regard to temperature of lake, India⁶

pH ranged from 7.87– 8.04, Maximum pH value was recorded at site B whereas minimum was observed at Site- A⁶

Electrical Conductivity ranged from 1.16 – 1.27 μmhos/mm. Maximum electrical conductivity was recorded at site A whereas minimum was at site C and site D^[6].Total Hardness is ranged from 1396 to 1456. Maximum Total Hardness was observed at site D, whereas minimum was recorded at site A^[11]

Calcium Hardness is ranged from 123 – 140 mg/l. Maximum calcium Hardness was observed at site D, whereas minimum was recorded at site B⁹

Magnesium hardness is ranged from 1246 - 1316. Maximum calcium Hardness was observed at site D, whereas minimum was recorded at site B. Generally it has been seen that Magnesium is associated with calcium in varying range of water, but it concentration remain generally lower than the calcium. Decrease in level of Mg reduces the phytoplankton population¹

Chloride is ranged from 159.52 - 177.2475 Maximum chloride was observed at site B, whereas minimum was recorded at site A. Chlorides in excess impart the salty taste to water and people not accustomed to high chloride are subjected to laxative effect⁶

Alkalinity is ranged from 73 - 76.75.Maximum Alkalinity was observed at site B, whereas minimum was recorded at site A⁶

TDS ranged from 679.75 – 709.25 ppm. Maximum TDS was observed at site A, whereas minimum was recorded at site C¹¹

Turbidity is generally associated with presence of solid contents and causes light scattering by suspended particles. Clay, slit, organic matter, phytoplankton and other microscopic organisms play vital role turbidity in pond water. The maximum turbidity in water was recorded in June 55 at site D and minimum turbidity was recorded in April 39 at site C in Macfersonlake.High turbidity in pond water was due to addition of sand, clay, slit, dung and various other pollutants along with rain water from the surrounding area into the pond⁸

The maximum BOD in water was recorded in July, 4 at site C and minimum BOD was recorded in May, 29 at same site C in Macferson Lake. increasing the rate of BOD in the lake can be due to the maximum microbial activity which was utilizing more DO for decomposition of organic matter .As it was already mentioned the MPN in lake was very high. The aquatic animal in lake was also responsible for higher BOD which is also consuming DO for respiration^[10] In Macferson Lake the MPN was very high from the range .maximum bacterial activity shows the maximum utilization of dissolve oxygen. Examination reports on various physico- chemical properties shows that the lake water was highly contaminated and it does not suitable for irrigation purpose, drinking water supply, recreation aspects as well as  fish raring purposes and can be easily assessed with poor diversity of lora and fainas. The maximum MPN in water was recorded at 7 different sites 1700 and minimum MPN was recorded at 3 different sites 1100 at the period of sampling in Macferson lake. Maximum MPN in the lake was due to direct mixing of huge amount of contaminated sewage water containing with organic material in the lake²

Table 1: Means of various physical and Chemical and biological analysis of Macferson lake water. Click here to View table

Table 2: Analysis of aquatic plant species in Macfersonlake

Biodiversity Of Aquatic Plantsin Macferson Lake Ecosystem, Dhoomanganj Allahabad U.P.

Plant diversity was studied with the help of quadrates. The analysis shows that the distribution and abundance of 2 species was higher in Macferson Lake. They are Typha latifolia and Water hyacinth which frequency, relative frequency and number is also high. They are covering more than 70 % of whole lake area while remaining 3 species are showing very low dominancy and hardly they cover 10 % area of the lake while other 20% area is open area where was no dominancy of any aquatic species. Due to maximum covering area by aquatic plant species and very less mixing of diffused oxygen (DO) in lake which causes the aquatic life is so rare to survive. Diversity in lake is degraded and not higher much higher. The poor quality of water is one of the driving forces of depletion of aquatic richness of the lake.

Table 3: Dominant species in different ranges inside the lake

The lake was distributed lake In 3 zones, namely shoreline, 10 m from the shoreline and throughout the lake and it was found that the area covered by 2 species is nearly similar in all 3 zones and other 3 species are showing different dominancy in different zones. Hydrocotyle ranunculoidesis not present in shoreline zone but in other two zones they are showing their presence in very less numbers. Lemna minor species was at very less amount in all zones but Sagitaria latifilia was more dominant in all zones in comparison to Hydrocotyle ranunculoides and Lemna minor species.

From the above study it was concluded that the physic-chemical parameter of the lake water shows the high value and the MPN is also present in a very high quantity when it compare with CPCB. Plant diversity of the lake is also less abundant mostly the Hydrocotyle ranunculoids covering a maximum area of the lake. It is suggested that the wetland water bodies are kidney of the environment and it need to take care it properly. It is also suggested that the sewage water must be restricted in the lake to improve the quality as well sustainability of faunal and floral life of Macferson Lake.

Acknowledgment

The authors are grateful to the College of Forestry,SHUATS , Allahabad, India for providing all necessary helps and facilities during the course of experiment and valuable comments of anonymous reviewers helped us a lot to improve the manuscript.

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