Abstract
During a study of the species diversity and distribution of seagrasses from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Halophila beccarii was recorded for the first time. This report updates the list of seagrasses for these islands from nine to ten species. Halophila beccarii was observed in an intertidal area of muddy substratum in Haddo Bay. The occurrence of this species is significant because of its new distributional record and because it is reported as a “vulnerable species” in the IUCN Red List. The morphometric characters, biomass of the species and its habitat are described in Haddo Bay.
About the authors
M. Savurirajan is a research scholar of the Department of Ocean Studies and Marine Biology, Pondicherry University, working on seagrass ecosystems. He is monitoring seagrass distribution in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and their diversity and taxonomy. His area of interest is marine plant ecosystems.
Raj Kiran Lakra is a research scholar in the Department of Ocean Studies and Marine Biology, Pondicherry University. His research interest is Polychaete assemblages in seagrass habitats of the Andaman Islands. In addition, he is involved in the area of marine habitat preferences and ecology of Polychaetes.
Thiruchitrambalam Ganesh is Assistant Professor of Marine Biology at the Pondicherry University, Port Blair. He was awarded a PhD in Marine Benthic Ecology by Andhra University for his work on macrobenthic communities of Northeast Indian Shelf, Bay of Bengal. His studies mainly focussed macrobenthic faunal communities in the Indian EEZ. Currently he is concentrating on assessments of benthic ecosystems, intertidal ecology, seagrass ecosystems, polychaete diversity, taxonomic studies of Mollusca, invertebrate taxonomy and diversity. He has published several papers on new records of invertebrate species. He teaches graduate courses on Invertebrates, Marine Environmental Impact Assessment and Biostatistics for Master degree students.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the authorities of Pondicherry University for providing the necessary facilities to carry out this work, and for the University fellowship for M. Savurirajan. We also thank scientists at the Botanical Survey of India, for their help. We are thankful to Hugh Kirkman and John Kuo for offering valuable suggestions to improve the manuscript.
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