ABSTRACT
The Chandipore beach, situated in Balasore district, Odisha, 21°28΄N 87°01΄E / 21.47°N and 87.02°E shows an interesting nature of wave action as the water recedes up to an average of 5 kilometres during the ebb and tide, resulting in a vast, dynamic array of coastal biodiversity. It gets exposed to a huge tourism load every year and is faced with multidimensional anthropogenic interactions manifested through a varying gradient of urbanizing parameters like cattle grazing, automobile exhaust, constructions in vicinity of beach area, sewage and solid disposals etc. Present piece of work aims at documenting the premonsoon abundance and diversity of marine invertebrate fauna in this eastern Indian sea beach. Adamsia palliata, Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda, Diogenes rectimanus, Sabella sp., Astropecten mauritianas were found to be few of the prominent faunal representatives. Significant differences in respect of species richness have been observed among different selected ecozones through the coastal landscape based on tidal activity and anthropogenic exposure (F5.73, p ≤ 0.05). Such type of field-based observations leads to the scope of further estimation of the ecological status of these native organisms, their intra and inter-specific associations and functional contributions to coastal landscape playing role as a potential bioindicator, which may in turn become instrumental in frame working the future conservation scheme of these natural assets.
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