OBSERVATIONS OF SPECIES (PLANKTON) ENVIRONMENT RELATIONSHIPS IN URBANAQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS

The present study deals with the species environment relationships in urban and rural habitats in water bodies of the Madras City (Latitude 13-degrees 05' N, Longitude 80-degrees 18' E). Sampling was done from October to November and a total number of 71 samples were collected wh ich includes different habitats of urban and rural areas. Physico chem ical parameters and their relationships with phyto and zooplanktons we re analysed by using canonical correspondence analysis. A fundamental change in the environmental aspect of water bodies in the urbanised ar eas and the species associations were found to be related to physical aspects of the environment rather than nutrient regimes unlike in the rural habitats where the planktons were related to nutrients.