Diversity, Distribution And Abundance Of Macroinvertebrates in Anchar Lake, Srinagar, Kashmir, J & K, India

A comprehensive macroinvertebrate study was conducted on Anchar lake situated in Kashmir valley 12 kms to the northwest of the state summer capital Srinagar with main objective to trace out the rich wealth of macroinvertebrate fauna harboring the lake.Sampling was done on monthly basis for a period of one year from March 2016 to Feberuarary 2017.Benthic and suface invertebrates macroinvertebrates were collected by Ekman,s dredge and D-Frame net respectively. During the investigation a total of 31macroinvertebrate species were recorded which belong to 5 classes, 15 orders and 22 families of which 14 families belonging to Arthropoda, 4 to Annelids and 4 to Mollusca. During the survey the total population density of macroinvertebrate fauna was found to be 44516 ind/m2.Molluscs were found to be most prevalent (23145 ind/m2) with the most dominant one being Lymnaea stagnalis species (4976 ind/m2) followed by Arthropods (13958 ind/m2) and Annelids (7413 ind/m2) with most dominant ones being Chironomous species (5385 ind/m2) among Arthropoda and Lymnodrillus hoffmeisteri (3504 ind/m2) among Annelida. The population desity of macroinvertebrate fauna was found to be greatly influenced by certain factors like macrophytes, depth, and nature of bottom sediment.