Ecology of Interstitial Faunal Assemblage from the Beaches along the Coast of Kerala, India

A quantitative and qualitative study of interstitial fauna and environmental variables was carried out on five selected sandy beaches of the west coast of India. Species of nine interstitial taxa abound the beaches. Nematodes, harpacticoid copepods, turbellarians, and polychaetes constituted the bulk of the population. The available energy in the beaches ranged from 0.2245 to 16.08 joules/mg and the grain size varied from 0.93 to 2.88φ. Organic matter correlated significantly with coarse sand (Pearson correlation r=0.651; P<0.01). Organic carbon, particle size, and dissolved oxygen determined the abundance and distribution of interstitial fauna as per multivariate BIOENV analysis. Shannon Wiener H′ diversity index was maximum at Cherai (2.027) and minimum at Sakthikulangara (1.144) beach. The value of nematode/copepod ratio (N  (2A)/C>10) indicated at Sakthikulangara beach validates the increased sensitivity of harpacticoids to environmental stress