The Probable Cause for Nesting Pattern of Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) at Ramnagar Beach, North East Coast of Andaman Island, India

The nesting behaviour of sea turtles remains a subject to study, due to their enigmatic pattern of seasonal breeding activities. Over a period of time, several reports have been made in this context associated with the nesting behaviour of the Olive Ridley turtles. In the present study, characteristics of the breeding beach and nesting pattern of Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) at Ramnagar along N-E coast of Andaman Islands were investigated, during the nesting periods 2016-2017. The study area hosts Olive Ridley, the dominant sea turtles with more than 300 individuals nesting each year. For this study, the number of sea turtles visited, nested, the sediment characters, salinity, and temperature were taken. The exposed sandy nesting beach characteristics are prone to varying degrees of morphological changes every day. The results depict that even though similar grain size (Coarse Sand to Fine Sand and Very well sorted to Poorly Sorted), with an ambient incubating temperature, pH and salinity with wide nesting area, the selective nesting in the particular location of the beach identified because of comfortable energy conditions in the waters (1.5 m/s) favours the female turtles to reach the beach at the preferable site of Ramnagar and nest.

Intertidal Biodiversity and Their Response to Climatic Variables, Temperature and pH—What We Know

As per the Essential Climate Variables (ESV) of World Meterological Organisation (WMO), the physical, chemical and biological variables critically contribute to the earth’s climate. Among them, the variables such as temperature and pH in the marine environment may affect seriously and in turn it has an impact on the biota, especially in the intertidal environment, where it has brunt force. According to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the datasets should provide the empirical evidence needed to predict the climate change and evoluate the mitigation and adaptation measures. Under this context, a review was carried out to know what extent marine scientists understand this factor and what level the biodiversity was evoluated and its impact was analysed in this article. Based on the existing literature review, it was understood that only a few groups that also only few species from these groups were studied in this aspect. The remaining groups and their species and their basic trophic were not evolved in this aspect. So, the marine scientific community, environmentalist and policy makers should take stock on this aspect and give thrust on this study.

A Review on Taxonomy of Phylum Kinorhyncha

Kinorhyncha is exclusively marine, holobenthic, free-living, meiofaunal species found in all marine habitats in the world. However, information on geographical distribution and taxonomical distributional status of Kinorhyncha are needed further understanding. This research article presents a compiled, up-to-date checklist of the Phylum Kinorhyncha based on bibliographical survey and revision of taxon names. Present checklist of this phylum comprises 271 species belonging to 30 genera and 13 families. The families are distributed under three orders, Echinorhagata Sorensen et al. 2015, Kentrorhagata Sorensen et al. 2015, Xenosomata Zelinka, 1907. Among the 271 valid species, in the last five years 82 new species emerged, two new orders and three families were described. It also includes nine new genera. This checklist could serve as a valuable tool to encourage comparison of inter and intraregional research on Kinorhyncha as well as it can be used as baseline data for future taxonomical revision.

Distribution of Gastropods in the Intertidal Environment of South, Middle and North Andaman Islands, India

Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the gastropod diversity is high, due to the majority of shores are rocky. The wet rocky shore promotes algal growth, which is ultimate for feeding ground for gastropod growth and development leading to more diversity. The global warming, anthropogenic activities, industrial and domestic pollution, etc., have accelerated the loss of coastal and marine biodiversity components over the last few decades which has been of great concern. However, except global warming, the other factors were of least concern with reference to Andaman and Nicobar Islands biodiversity due to a pristine environment. Therefore, exploration of biodiversity in these islands is essential to create a baseline data for record and future research. Four locations of south to north Andaman Islands which represented Carbyns Cove from south Andaman, Rangat and Mayabunder from the Middle Andaman and Diglipur from the North Andaman were selected for this study. Gastropoda species were collected for a period of one year in three prevailing seasons of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. They are South West Monsoon (SW monsoon), North East Monsoon (NE Monsoon) and Non Rainy Seasons (NR Seasons). The present study of gastropods distribution in the South, Middle and North Andaman groups of Islands suggested that there are 71 species belonging to 52 genus and 33 families. At any one of the time and any one of the locations, only one occurrence was noticed for 38 species and remaining 33 species were overlapping with respect to stations and seasons. Evaluation of the cluster suggested that Cluster A (NR season in Carbyns Cove) and Cluster B (NE and SW Monsoon in Mayabunder) as a separate entity among the 12 combinations of stations and seasons due to their species representation. It was also concluded that out of 71 studied species, 3 species were not reported till date in these Island environment and 2 species from any other parts of India.

Identification of Y-Nauplii (Facetotecta) in Andaman Sea, India

The Facetotecta is among the lesser known groups in the world ocean. The present study recorded two types of Facetotecta in the Andaman Sea, off Andaman Islands. These two types of Facetotecta were observed during the period of August 2015, July 2016 and October 2017 and identified as Type I Hansenocaris corvinae and Type IX Hansenocaris leucadea. However, the cursory analysis suggested that the Type IX is a new type of Facetotecta and named it as Type XII Hansenocaris portblairenae sp. (nov). This finding suggests that this Facetotecta observation is the first report in the Andaman Sea, as well as in the Indian Ocean Region.

Occurrence of <i>Chloeia flava pulchella</i>Baird, 1868, from Off Junglighat, South Andaman, India

Fire-worms from the family Amphinomidae Lamark, 1818, act as a predator, scavenger and sedimentivores, in nearshore waters. This family has 146 valid species among them 18 numbers reported from Indian marine environment and 11 reported from the Andaman waters. Among this family, genus Choleia Lamark. 1818, reported 4 species and 1 subspecies from the Andaman waters. Among these the species Chloeia flava pulchella Baird, 1868was reported by Tampi and Rangarajan, 1964, but no detailed species description was found for this species. During the studies on continuous monitoring of the environmental parameter of nearshore waters of off South Andaman region, a specimen of Chloeia flava pulchella Baird, 1868, was collected. Later the cursory analysis for this specimen identification was revealed that the detailed description of this species found in this region was not available in the literature. So, the detailed taxonomic description was developed and presented in this article.

Distribution of Larger Benthic Foraminifera (LBF) in Selected Islands of Marine National Park, Port Blair, South Andaman, India

The present study enhances the knowledge on the diversity, abundance and depth distribution of larger benthic foraminifera (LBF) from six different islands in Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park (MGMNP), where meagre anthropogenic impact existed. Very few works have been reported on the Larger Benthic Foraminifera (LBF) on this Island environment, as this region also falls under Marine Protected Area (MPA). Development of database on this study has a validity for pristine nature of LBF environment. Modern LBF hotspot diversity is often overlooked and no data are available to date on tropical regions. Out of 105 MPA’s existed in this Island, MGMNP encompasses about 15 islands, out of which six islands were considered for the study. These six islands are Snob Island, Grub Island, Boat Island, Hobday Island, Belle Island and Jolly Buoy Island. The study revealed presence of 22 taxa of modern LBF and the most common families are the Amphisteginidae, Calcarinidae, Nummulitidae, Peneroplidae and Soritidae. The purpose of this study was to document the distribution of LBF species prevailing in this area, as well as develop the baseline environmental information of its existences to facilitate further continuous monitoring the changes occurring in this island environment. The environment suggested that the presence of major LBF species studied are Calcarina calcarinoides, Calcarina defrancei, Calcarina hispida, Calcarina spengleri, Neorotalia calcar and Neorotalia gaimardi exhibited the availability of good coral cover with commendable macro algal coverage or sparsely sea grasses, as they prefer such substratum for their epiphytic association.

Nesting Biology and Site Selection of Olive Ridley—A Coherence of Nature

Nesting behaviour of sea turtles remains a subject to study, due to their enigmatic pattern of seasonal breeding activities. In the present study, characteristics of the breeding turtle, Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) at Ramnagar along N-E coast of North Andaman Islands were investigated, for the nesting periods 2016-2017. Olive Ridley is the dominant sea turtles, with more than 300 individuals nesting every season with at least a 75% hatching success rate. It is one of the conducive, highly protective and undisturbed nesting sites for Olive Ridley on North Andaman coast. In the present study an initiative is made, to identify nature’s cues and the biological characteristics of Olive Ridley, which leads it to nest at Ramnagar beach, with a high hatchling success rate.