BIOMONITORING OF WETLAND USING MACROPHYTES AND MACROINVERTEBRATES

Bio-monitoring is the use of biological responses to assess changes in the environment. Biological monitoring is considered to provide an integrated approach to assess water and overall environmental quality. The ultimate objective of bio-monitoring in the Rampur Ghol is to ensure that local resource users in the water sector to apply biodiversity friendly management practices within their day to day activities. In this research macro invertebrates are used to classify the Rampur Ghol into different Water Quality Classes based on Saprobic Water Quality Classification (SWQC) approach. Rampur Ghol was selected as research site for biological monitoring, situated in Chitwan district, Mangalpur VDC Ward No. 2. Macrophytes were collected from both the aquatic habitat and buffer zone of the Rampur Ghol in seasonal basis using fixed quadrate of 1×1m2 . Benthic macro-invertebrates were sampled by using bin sampler and grab sampler and then analysed. During study period altogether 14 families belonging to 10 orders of aquatic macro-invertebrate were found in dry season and 18 families belonging to 12 orders of aquatic macro-invertebrates were found in rainy season. Accessing the Biotic Index of macro-invertebrates, it was found that eight sites fall in water quality class III and site 7 and site 10 were rated class II-III and class III-IV respectively in dry season. Similarly, seven sites were rated water quality class III and three sites were rated water quality class II-III in rainy season. Study of the macrophytes in site 7, 8 and 10 concluded that the macrophytes from sites 8 and 10 showed high degree of organic pollution and showed the dominance of Pistia stratiotes throughout the study, which is considered to be indicator of organic pollution. High anthropogenic activities show fluctuation of water quality in Rampur Ghol. It can be concluded that humans are the key factor for degrading the Ghol.