Monsoon driven interplay between phytoplankton size classes and trophic status in a tropical coastal lagoon.

Tropical coastal lagoons influenced by monsoonal hydrology experience seasonal shifts in freshwater influx that significantly alter their trophic state. However, the response of phytoplankton size classes (PSC), Pico-, Nano-, and Micro-phytoplankton to such variability remains poorly understood. This study investigates the relationship between PSC distribution and the Trophic Level Index (TLI) in the Chilika Lagoon, India, using comprehensive monthly data from 2018 to 2019 across a salinity continuum.

Status and conservation challenges of the second-largest seagrass bed in India: Chilika lagoon.

Studies related to seagrass ecology, conservation, and management are sparse and highly biased in India. Even though the geographical distribution of seagrass is diverse in India, about 74% of the scientific publications have been made from Palk Bay and the Gulf of Mannar from Tamilnadu. Chilika, the largest lagoon in Asia, harbors the second largest seagrass meadow in India 22% of the total.

Landfall season is critical to the impact of a cyclone on a monsoon-regulated tropical coastal lagoon.

Cyclones can produce a wide variety of short-term and long-term ecological impacts on coastal lagoons depending on cyclone's physical-meteorological characteristics and the lagoon's geographic, geomorphic, and bathymetric characteristics. Here, we theorized that in monsoon regulated tropical coastal lagoons, another important factor that could determine the impact of a cyclone is the landfall season or time of the year with reference to the monsoon season. We analyzed the impact of two cyclones which made landfall near Chilika, Asia's largest brackish water lagoon in different seasons, Cyclone Fani and Titli before and after the monsoon season.