Hydrobiological Heterogeneity and its Impact on the Pargwal Wetland Ecosystem.

One of the key landscapes on earth are the wetland ecosystems which are extremely crucial for the sustenance of various ecological realms as they provide immense ecosystem services to them. From serving impressive hosts to many organisms, particularly migratory birds, and successfully aiding in useful interactions between various biotic and abiotic components, wetlands have a remarkable repute. It has been a matter of only few decades that interaction of man with wetlands has resulted in severe degradation of these ecological repositories. Similar is the case of Pargwal wetland of lower Shivalik, located about 5 km from the international border in Akhnoor tehsil of Jammu and Kashmir division. Continuous interference from the human habitation, encroachment of wetland area, conversion into agricultural area, illegal sand mining, construction of cemented pillars for bridge, are just to name a few leading causes of its dwindling status. The present study is a data generated for seasonally for one year and assessment of the degrading parameters were made. Based on the water quality parameters, the wetland turned out moderately alkaline in nature and WQI showed poor water quality at all the study stations, depicting its deteriorating state. Also, aquatic insects that serve as important bioindicators were implemented for assessing the water quality using various biotic indices. Thus, a pioneer attempt has been made to decipher the causes of the continuing deterioration status of this immensely important wetland by analyzing its hydrobiology, which if not paid heed, will result in total territorialization of this intermediate water resource. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]