Trophic Relationship of Macrobenthos in the Southwest Bay of Bengal: A Comparative Analysis of Continental Shelf Ecosystem Models
-
Seerangan Manokaran [3] ; Puthiyath Joseph Antony [1] ; Kapuli Gani Mohamed Thameemul Ansari [2] ; K. M. Aarif [4] ; Omer Reshi [3] ; Jeff B.R. Abrogueña [5] ; Pasiyappazham Ramasamy [6]
-
[1] University of St Michael's College
University of St Michael's College
Canadá
-
[2] Annamalai University
Annamalai University
India
-
[3] Applied Research Center for Environment and Marine Studies, Research and Innovation, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals
-
[4] Basic and Applied Scienti ic Research Center (BASRC), Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Riyadh
-
[5] Mangrove and Forestation Division, Green Energy and Environmental Policy Department, Saudi Aramco, Dhahran
-
[6] Marine Biopolymer Research Lab, Centre for Marine and Aquatic Research (CMAR), Saveetha Dental College & Hospitals, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences (SIMATS), Saveetha University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
-
- Localización: Thalassas: An international journal of marine sciences, ISSN 0212-5919, Vol. 42, Nº. 1, 2026
- Idioma: inglés
- Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
-
Resumen
The continental shelf ecosystem structure of the southwest Bay of Bengal was assessed and quantified using the ECOPATH and ECOSIM models. The models were applied to evaluate the importance of macrofauna in the ecosystem and to predict the role of macrobenthic biomass on other groups. The Total System Throughput (TST) was obtained at 13,970 t/km2/yr, from the mass balance model. Macrobenthos was located at trophic level 3.12 in the flow model diagram and inflowed biomass from three groups, including meiobenthos, zooplankton, and detritus, and outflowed to nine groups such as elasmobranchs, large pelagics, tunas, benthic carnivore fishes, benthopelagic cephalopods, anchovies, clupeids besides shrimps and other crustaceans of different trophic levels ranging from 2.69 to 4.54. The temperate and tropical shelf structures modeled depend on consumption, respiratory flows, TST, production, total primary production/total respiration (TPP/TR), and net production. Principal component analysis (factor analysis) showed the selected ecological attributes (sum of all consumption – TC, sum of all respiratory flows – TR, sum of all exports – TE, sum of all flows into detritus – TD, divided by total system throughput -TST, and total primary production – TPP was divided by total biomass (excluding detritus)- TB) have marginally significant (pseudo-F = 2.94; p = 0.05) among the climate zones and strong variability (90%) as well. This study elucidates the contribution of the food web structures in continental shelves that can also help to understand the importance of key ecosystem in the Bay of Bengal.
