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<article xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" dtd-version="1.0" article-type="general-sciences" lang="en"><front><journal-meta><journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">IJCRR</journal-id><journal-id journal-id-type="nlm-ta">I Journ Cur Res Re</journal-id><journal-title-group><journal-title>International Journal of Current Research and Review</journal-title><abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="pubmed">I Journ Cur Res Re</abbrev-journal-title></journal-title-group><issn pub-type="ppub">2231-2196</issn><issn pub-type="opub">0975-5241</issn><publisher><publisher-name>Radiance Research Academy</publisher-name></publisher></journal-meta><article-meta><article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">1922</article-id><article-id pub-id-type="doi"/><article-id pub-id-type="doi-url"/><article-categories><subj-group subj-group-type="heading"><subject>General Sciences</subject></subj-group></article-categories><title-group><article-title>SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION AND SPECIES DIVERSITY OF MACROZOOBENTHOS IN HOKERA WETLAND, KASHMIR&#13;
</article-title></title-group><contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author"><name><surname>Dar</surname><given-names>Idrees Yousuf</given-names></name></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author"><name><surname>Bhat</surname><given-names>G. A.</given-names></name></contrib></contrib-group><volume/><issue/><fpage>32</fpage><lpage>41</lpage><permissions><copyright-statement>This article is copyright of Popeye Publishing, 2009</copyright-statement><copyright-year>2009</copyright-year><license license-type="open-access" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"><license-p>This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) Licence. You may share and adapt the material, but must give appropriate credit to the source, provide a link to the licence, and indicate if changes were made.</license-p></license></permissions><abstract><p>Analyses of the complex interrelationship among the benthic community of freshwaters have focused to a large extent on descriptions of species and their distributions in relation to environmental variables. The distribution of the diverse fauna within wetlands is extremely heterogeneous, in part a product of variable requirements for feeding, growth, and reproduction. These requirements are strongly influenced by change in the substratum and overlying water on a seasonal basis, e.g., changes in oxygen content, and in the inputs of living and dead organic matter for food. The benthic organisms either possesses adaptive mechanisms to cope with these changes enter relatively dormant stages until more physiologically amenable conditions return, move or die. The adaptive capabilities of the benthic animals to the dynamics of environmental parameters are basic to their distribution, growth and productivity and reproductive potential. The present study was carried out during May-October 2008 to make an ecological and spatial assessment of acrozoobenthic communities in a wetland of international importance. The study revealed marked difference in the ecological presence of some of the important pollution indicator Macrozoobenthos which are used to assess water quality also benthic communities are structured both by abiotic and biotic factors along the spatial and the temporal scales. Macrobenthic animals live in an environment that is influenced by eutrophication, pollution, fisheries, removal of substrate and dumping of substrate. Macro invertebrate community responses to environmental changes are useful in assessing the impact of municipal, industrial, oil and agricultural wastes from other land uses on surface waters. During present study a few species of Annelida were found to be dominant in terms of taxa and abundance across the four sites of collection, Mollusca however, were poorly represented. Insecta, although represented by one Texon namely Chironomous sp. was abundant throughout the study period at all sites.&#13;
</p></abstract><kwd-group><kwd>Biomonitoring</kwd><kwd> Benthic Community</kwd><kwd> Biological indicators</kwd><kwd> Freshwater</kwd><kwd> Nutrients</kwd><kwd> Sediments</kwd><kwd> Trophic Status</kwd><kwd> Wetland.</kwd></kwd-group></article-meta></front></article>
