Macro zoobenthic populations of the Caroni Swamp, Trinidad and Tobago

Data Records

The data in this occurrence resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 56 records.

This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.

Versions

The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.

How to cite

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

Kanhai A, & Juman R. (2023). Macro zoobenthic populations of the Caroni Swamp, Trinidad and Tobago. Version 1.0. Institute of Marine Affairs. Occurrence dataset. https://cloud.gbif.org/lac/resource?r=zoobenthic_caroniswamp_2018&v=1.0

Rights

Researchers should respect the following rights statement:

The publisher and rights holder of this work is Institute of Marine Affairs. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC 4.0) License.

GBIF Registration

This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: eb461b1f-8033-40d5-88e1-47809c0f2b14.  Institute of Marine Affairs publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by Participant Node Managers Committee.

Keywords

Occurrence; Caroni Swamp; macrozoobenthos; environmental quality assessment; ecological status.; Observation; Caroni Swamp; macrozoobenthos; environmental quality assessment; ecological status.

Contacts

Geographic Coverage

Samples were collected in the Caroni Swamp, Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago. The Caroni Swamp is a wetland with occupies about 21.7 km of the Gulf of Paria coastline, it extends from Chandernagore River in the south to Beetham and Churchill Roosevelt Highways in the north.

Taxonomic Coverage

N/A

Temporal Coverage

Project Data

Human pressures have placed many tropical estuaries in developing countries under increased levels of stress. The Caroni Swamp Ramsar Site, the largest mangrove swamp along the west coast of Trinidad, has been subjected to high levels of anthropogenic impacts including hydrological alteration and pollution from land-based sources since the 1920s. While most of these impacts have been well documented, limited information exists on the macrobenthic communities in the swamp. This study addresses the paucity of information. The macrobenthic fauna in the main waterways of Caroni Swamp was sampled at 12 locations using a Van Veen 0.025 m2 grab, once in the dry (April) and wet (August) seasons of 2015 with a total of 144 samples. The samples were sorted and counted and species were identified to the lowest possible taxonomic level. A total of 55 taxa were identified with polychaetes being the most abundant taxa.

The personnel involved in the project:

Sampling Methods

Twelve sampling stations were selected throughout the Caroni Swamp. Six replicate benthic grabs were taken at each station during the dry season (March 2015) and wet season (August 2015), using a Van Veen 0.025 m2 grab.

Method step description:

1. The six replicate grabs per site were determined by doing pre-sampling and constructing a species composition curve. The grab samples were filtered in a 0.5 mm sieve bucket, and stained with a 5 % formalin and Rose Bengal dye mixture. Samples were brought to the laboratory for sorting and identification. Macroinvertebrates were identified to the lowest possible taxonomic level.

Collection Data

Bibliographic Citations

1. Kanhai, A., & Juman, R. (2018). The effect of seasonal and human pressure on macrobenthic fauna in the Caroni Swamp Ramsar Site, Trinidad and Tobago. Revista de Biología Tropical, 66(3), 1101-1117. http://dx.doi.org/10.15517/rbt.v66i3.31419

Additional Metadata