Author: Prof. Dr. Nirmal Kumar, J.I.

Publisher: Google Book Publishers

Published:

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13:

Aquatic ecosystems are diverse habitats, endowed with physical, chemical, and geographical variations in the world, where the gradation from highly productive organisms to highly specialized organisms exists. The Mother Planet (Earth) is the only one in our solar system, characterized and shaped by abundant liquid; water - a necessity for life. Although water characterizes this planet, majority of it is saline in nature (97.2%) and contained in the world's ocean. Only 2.8% is fresh water, including 2.05% frozen in glaciers, 0.68% as groundwater, and only a tiny fraction (0.011%) of our water resources is contained in freshwater i.e. ponds, rivers and lakes. This water is available first in the form of surface water through rivers and lakes. The river is a prime example of lotic ecosystem. It is a wide, natural stream of fresh water that flows into an ocean, and is usually fed by smaller streams, called tributaries that enter it along its course. A river and its tributaries form a drainage basin or watershed that collects the run-off throughout the region and channels along with erosional sediments toward the river. Rivers are described by unidirectional flow, continuous state of physical change, high degree of spatial and temporal heterogeneity including biotic (aquatic plant, organisms and plankton) as well as abiotic (physical and chemical) interactions. There are 14 major rivers, 44 medium rivers and 53 small rivers in India. Major rivers have been proved to be the seat for the setup of big cities and their educational, political and regional developments. The state of Gujarat has been profusely endowed with number of perennial rivers such as Narmada, Tapi, Mahi and Sabarmati. The book Trophodynamics, Biodiversity and Conservation of Rivers of Gujarat focuses on environmental, ecological, and biological studies of two major rivers viz. Banas and Meshwo, Western Gujarat, India, covering abiotic and biotic components, eutrophication, hydrochemistry, geochemistry, phytoplankton, zooplankton, and streamers (macroinvertebrates). The book highlights an in-depth study of surface water and bottom sediment quality, diversity, density, abundance, commonness, rarity of plankton including qualitative and quantitative characters, diversity indices, population dynamics of streamers, and correlation between abiotic and biotic components. The book would unquestionably be the need of an hour for wetland managers, riverine conservationists, and policy makers or decision authorities to prevent the unrestrained exploitation of stream biodiversity, destruction of potential riverine habitats, and uncontrolled interactions of man and technology with lotic ecosystems of the world.