Tourism Carrying Capacity for Beaches of South Andaman Island, India

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands (ANI) is one of the largest tourist areas in India attracting both the international and domestic tourists each year. The Island Administration has a vision to develop the islands as an upmarket island destination for ecotourism. Among the island group, the South Andaman region is the most visited tourist destination and beaches of these islands have great potential for tourism attractions. The present work is an attempt to understand the potential of these beaches by assessing the carrying capacity in terms of number of visitors that can be allowed over a period of time, which will further help with better tourism management. The methodology used to estimate the tourism carrying capacity (TCC) is based on the physical and ecological conditions of each site and the existing infrastructure. The total effective carrying capacity (ECC) estimated for the beaches of Port Blair area (126,301 visitors/day) reveals that the current tourism activity is in lower level compared to its carrying capacity. Such carrying capacity assessments can be used as an input into the regular planning process. Preliminary estimates suggest that A&N Islands can be promoted for high value-low volume, eco-friendly, and environmentally sustainable tourism

<span style="font-size:15.0pt;line-height:115%; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-ansi-language:EN-IN;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">New Distribution Record of <i>Cephalopholis aurantia </i>Valenciennes, 1828 (Pisces: Serranidae) <span style="font-size:15.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;mso-ansi-language:EN-IN;mso-fareast-language:EN-IN;mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Golden Hind to Indian Waters from <span style="font-size:15.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-ansi-language:EN-IN;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Andaman and Nicobar Islands</span></span></span>

2233-2235The present work reported the new distribution record of a species of grouper Cephalopholis aurantia (Valenciennes, 1828) from Andaman waters, India with species descriptions

New records on the opisthobranch fauna of the Andaman Islands, India

215-217Out of 6000 species of opisthobranch, 164 species belongings to 6 orders and 35 families were reported till date in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Haminoea cymbalum (Quoy & Gaimard 1833) had been collected alive in Carbyns Cove, Andaman Islands. This species is the new record in Andaman waters

New record of <i>Carijoa riisei </i>at Wandoor-Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park [MGMNP], Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India

212-214Present paper reports the first record of Carijoa riisei (Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1860) in the Wandoor Jetty-Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Parks, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India

Monitoring the Diatom bloom of <i>Leptocylindrus danicus</i> (Cleve 1889, Bacillariophyceae) in the coastal waters of South Andaman Island

958-965Hydrographical parameters were studied and nutrients such as nitrate, nitrite, phosphate and silicate were measured. Temperature ranged from (24.5-27ºC), Salinity ranged from (19-25 psu). Nutrients such as nitrite varied between 0.23-1.009 µmol. l-1, nitrate (0.63-4.71 µmol. l-1), phosphate (0.02-0.23 µmol. l-1) and silicate concentrations remained much higher and exhibited between the ranges of 4.07-10.37 µmol. l-1. Biomass expressed in terms of chlorophyll a was high, ranged from 0.09-0.267µg. l-1. It was found out that an increase in the nutrient content has initiated the bloom. In the present investigation, following species of phytoplankton were found to be common; diatoms such as Bacteriastrum sp., Cerataulina sp., Chaetoceros sp., Corthron sp., Coscinodiscus sp., Guinardia sp., Odontella sp.,dinoflagellatessuch as Ceratium sp., Gonyaulax sp., Gymnodinium sp., Prorocentrum sp and Protoperidinium sp. An increase in rain fall (904.0 mm) during September 2012 due to south west monsoon which was also found to be major factor that contributed to the bloom

Species diversity of Polychaete in coral reef ecosystem of Great Nicobar Island, India

Abstract. Sekar V Rajasekaran R, Sachithanandam V, Sankar R, Sridhar R, Kingsley PW. 2016. Species diversity of Polychaete in coral reef ecosystem of Great Nicobar Island, India. Nusantara Bioscience 8: 71-76. Crypto fauna inhabiting the shelves of the coral reefs in Great Nicobar Islands are affected by bio-erosion caused by grazing and boring of organisms, hence present study revealed on two major components the opportunistic and true borers. Samples were collected from four stations from three different coral types (live coral, highly degraded & rubble) of the Great Nicobar Islands. Of the total 401 individuals of Polychaetes collected from various sites 8 taxonomic species namely Terebella ehrenbergi, Idanthyrsus pennatus, Lysidice ninetta, L. collaris, Pseudonereis variegata, Perinereis cultrifera, P. nigropunctata, Eurythoe complanata were identified from the aforementioned three coral type sources. Among these P. variegata and L. collaris which accounted for 32.01% and 28.5% respectively, were the most dominant cryptic groups; whereas I. pennatus and T. ehrenbergi were the least records in all three habitats which accounted for 1.75%. In this study, the observations revealed that degraded corals were found in greater abundance than rubble and live corals. The species composition was observed maximum in Laxmi Nagar due to the availability of degraded coral patches than other stations. The study to evaluates the baseline knowledge of the coral inhabiting Polychaete distribution, it would be a pathway for forthcoming researchers on particular group taxonomy, and towards better understanding & utilization of coral reef ecosystem of the Great Nicobar Islands

Identification and Reappraisal of Epinephelus coioides and Epinephelus tauvina through a DNA Barcoding Approach from the Andaman waters

1778-1786Present study consists sequencing of Cytochrome Oxidase I gene (COI) (DNA barcoding) to identify Epinephelus coioides (Hamilton, 1822) and Epinephelus tauvina (Forsskal, 1775)specimens. Using a Kimura two parameter (K2P), Neighbour Joining (NJ) phylogram and species identification found in the Barcoding of Life database (BOLD) revealed that Andaman species of E. coioides and E. tauvina has low genetic divergence indicating that they may in fact belong to the same species despite, earlier conventional taxonomy reporting the existence of E. coioides and E. tauvina in Andaman waters. In addition, COI gene sequences (many from voucher specimens) retrieved from public databases such as NCBI and BOLD for the comparative and real genetic identity was done. The COI gene sequence used for the K2P analysis delineated species studied in Andaman (E. coioides and E. tauvina ) and Indian references (E. tauvina) sequences had intraspecific genetic divergence values of 0.005 and NJ phylogram showed that these two species are one and same in Andaman waters as well as Indian reference sequences. Based on the morphological study of Andaman water species it showed two different species but the internal organelle (pyloric caeca count) study exhibited as a single species, i.e. E.coioides. The present study concluded that DNA barcoding sequence provides the distinct genetic distances among studied Epinephelus species with low level of interspecific genetic distances for E. tauvina and E. coioides. Present study concluded that the Andaman water groupers need reclassification or re-evaluation in future

Climatic changes and anthropogenic influences on Rhizosolenia imbricata Brightwell 1858 Bacillariophyceae Bloom in Sisostris Bay, Port Blair, Andaman, India

425-430Present study consists the Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) of Rhizosolenia imbricata Brightwell 1858 in SisostrisBay, Port Blair, South Andaman region during February 2013. R. imbricata was counted as 24,000 colony/L observed 3 days blooms appeared in study site. Role of nutrients and environmental parameters changes during bloom outbreak is also investigated. Status of temperature, salinity and nutrient nitrite as the principal limiting parameters for this bloom is presented in this study

Mapping and monitoring of land use/land cover changes in Neil Island (South Andaman) using geospatial approaches

1762-1768Present study examines the dynamics of land use/ land cover changes to Neil Island, South Andaman using Remote Sensing and GIS for a period of 13 years. Geocoded satellite imageries of Landsat TM (2000) and Landsat ETM 8 (2013) were used to identify the changes between 2000 and 2013. Visual interpretation technique was carried out to identify the features from the satellite imagery along with ground truth verifications. Land use categories such as forest area, mangroves, coral reefs, sandy beach, water body and built-up land have been identified and mapped. The present status (2013) of these resources is as follows: forest area 735.17 ha (40.17%), built-up land covers 601.15 ha (32.85%), coral reef covers an area of 441.00 ha (24.10%), mangroves covers 34.03 ha (1.86%) and sandy beach covers 16.15 ha (0.88%). Forest area was the largest component of land use feature which shows a significant change from 2000 to 2013. Aerial extent of coral reef and mangroves was decreased to 9.21 ha and 2.32 ha respectively