Benthic assemblages for ecological evaluation of Lake Borollus, Mediterranean Sea, Egypt.
Lake Borollus is one of the largest and oldest Egyptian lakes, whereas it is located in the far north of the Delta and mediates between the two branches of Rosetta and Damietta. It is connected to the Mediterranean Sea through Boghaz El Borollus and to the Nile through the Bermbal Canal, which was established in 1926 to feed the lake with abundant quantities of Nile water and Nile fish. Central coordinates: latitude 31°30' N and longitude 30°49' E with an area has decreased from 160,000 acres to 108,000 acres. The present work provides an ecological study on the regional and temporal distribution of benthic communities in particular along the wetlands lakes waters. Indicated that, the effective sediment and water variables which significantly correlated with the distribution and abundance of the identified benthos assemblages of vegetation and animal’s groups include sediments structure, water quality (pH, S%, DO, BOD, temperature. Overall, 10 taxa and 27 species of macroinvertebrates were identified. They were exclusively associated with submerged vascular plants Potamogeton pectinatus while only 10 were alive forms and the rest were represented by calcareous shells of molluscs. The benthic flora and fauna were estimated in the Lake Botollus, Egypt is subjected to the influx of sewage effluents, agriculture drainages and industrial wastes. Also considerable amounts of drain water are constantly discharged along the southern drains. Quantitative hauls were performed at the different habitats during winter and summer, 2017 covering 12 sampling sites and 9 drains discharged directly to the lake which bottom sampling was collected by grab sampler were selected to represent the covering the different environments. The dredged area per each station was 225 cm2 per haul. Results illustrated that the distribution of benthos in the estimated area is greatly affected by the degree of pollution as well as the prevailing hydrological conditions. The aquatic submerged vascular plants Potamogeton pectinatus appeared as the most common species in the lake in addition the bottom animals appeared more- sensitive to pollution than submerged vascular; thus, their lowest counts were recorded at the most sites and the fauna was mainly represented by the Nematoda, Oligochaeta, Polychaeta, Insects larvae, Ostracoda, Amphipoda, Barnacles, and juvenile larvae of Mollusca. Sediments in some areas consist of organic materials (sludge) is composed of waste sewage and agricultural and industrial and others of sandy silt (silt), calcareous shells are mainly of molluscs’ and therefore it can determine some environments prevailing in the lake. Results indicated for examining configuration qualitative benthic macro during the study period were recorded 27 species, including 9 species of living benthic macro organisms include one type of aquatic submerged vascular plants of species Potamogeton pectinatus. Although higher values of taxonomic richness, the Shannon and index (H`) and evenness (J`) were obtained with the water Potamogeton pectinatus habitat as well as Ostracoda Sclerochilus contortus were most abundant.
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| Format: | Journal Contribution biblioteca |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2022-06-30
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| Subjects: | benthic assemblages, environmental evaluation, biodiversity, dominance species, Lake Borollus, ASFA_2015::L::Lake ecology, ASFA_2015::E::Environmental assessment, |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1834/42450 |
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