New record of the pantropical seagrass Halophila decipiens Ostenfeld (Hydrocharitaceae) from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India

Titus Immanuel; M.P. Goutham-Bharathi; Sneha Sawhney; P. Ragavan; R. Kiruba Sankar

doi:10.1515/bot-2015-0090

Article

New record of the pantropical seagrass Halophila decipiens Ostenfeld (Hydrocharitaceae) from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India

Titus Immanuel
Titus Immanuel is a research scholar in the Division of Fisheries Science, ICAR-Central Island Agricultural Research Institute under various projects. His main research interests are marine invertebrate taxonomy especially Poriferan taxonomy. He is passionate to unravel the biodiversity of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
, M.P. Goutham-Bharathi
M.P. Goutham-Bharathi is a research scholar in the Division of Fisheries Science, ICAR-Central Island Agricultural Research Institute under various projects. His main research interests are applied to mangrove biodiversity and capture fisheries. More recent research has focused on marine faunal biodiversity of the remotely located Nicobar group of Islands.
, Sneha Sawhney
Sneha Sawhney is a research scholar in the Division of Fisheries Science, ICAR-Central Island Agricultural Research Institute. She worked under the project “Identifying critical habitats of Dugong dugon using satellite data”. She is primarily a biotechnologist.
, P. Ragavan
P. Ragavan is research fellow in Fisheries Science Division, ICAR-Central Island Agricultural Research Institute, Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands. He is pursuing his PhD degree in Marine Biology. His area of interest is taxonomy of mangroves and seagrasses. More recent research has concentrated on natural hybrids of Rhizophora in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
and R. Kiruba Sankar
R. Kiruba Sankar is a scientist in the Division of Fisheries Science, ICAR-Central Island Agricultural Research Institute. He was the principal investigator of the project titled “Identifying critical habitats of Dugong dugon using satellite data”. His research interests are applied to fisheries resources management in the Islands.

Published/Copyright: January 23, 2016

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From the journal Botanica Marina Volume 59 Issue 1

Abstract

The pantropical seagrass Halophila decipiens (Hydrocharitaceae), representing a new record for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, was reported from two locations: Scissostris Bay of Port Blair at 6–7 m deep and Nursery of Neil Island at 10–12 m deep. Observations on the reproductive and vegetative characters indicate that the flowering plant is monoecious, has a pair of petiolated leaves with a hairy surface and serrated leaf blade margins with 5–9 cross leaf veins. Leaf morphometric characters varied significantly between the two sites. The leaves of the Scissostris Bay specimens were smaller (1.11×0.4 cm) than the leaves of the specimens from Neil Island (1.73×0.59 cm), which might be due to the deeper depth ranges at Neil Island or other environmental factors. The present record is the 11th seagrass species from the Islands and this species could have been overlooked due to its habitat in deeper water.

Keywords: flora; Halophila; Hydrocharitaceae; India; new record; seagrass

Corresponding author: Titus Immanuel, Division of Fisheries Science, Central Island Agricultural Research Institute (ICAR), Post Box No. 181, Garacharma (Post), Port Blair – 744 101, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India, e-mail: titusimmanuel@yahoo.co.in

About the authors

Titus Immanuel

Titus Immanuel is a research scholar in the Division of Fisheries Science, ICAR-Central Island Agricultural Research Institute under various projects. His main research interests are marine invertebrate taxonomy especially Poriferan taxonomy. He is passionate to unravel the biodiversity of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

M.P. Goutham-Bharathi

M.P. Goutham-Bharathi is a research scholar in the Division of Fisheries Science, ICAR-Central Island Agricultural Research Institute under various projects. His main research interests are applied to mangrove biodiversity and capture fisheries. More recent research has focused on marine faunal biodiversity of the remotely located Nicobar group of Islands.

Sneha Sawhney

Sneha Sawhney is a research scholar in the Division of Fisheries Science, ICAR-Central Island Agricultural Research Institute. She worked under the project “Identifying critical habitats of Dugong dugon using satellite data”. She is primarily a biotechnologist.

P. Ragavan

P. Ragavan is research fellow in Fisheries Science Division, ICAR-Central Island Agricultural Research Institute, Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands. He is pursuing his PhD degree in Marine Biology. His area of interest is taxonomy of mangroves and seagrasses. More recent research has concentrated on natural hybrids of Rhizophora in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

R. Kiruba Sankar

R. Kiruba Sankar is a scientist in the Division of Fisheries Science, ICAR-Central Island Agricultural Research Institute. He was the principal investigator of the project titled “Identifying critical habitats of Dugong dugon using satellite data”. His research interests are applied to fisheries resources management in the Islands.

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to the Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad, India for funding the research project on “Identification of Critical Habitats of Dugong Using Satellite Data”, as a part of which this study was carried out. The authors are also grateful to Dr. S. Dam Roy, Director, ICAR-Central Island Agricultural Research Institute, Port Blair for the facilities.

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Received: 2015-10-28

Accepted: 2016-1-7

Published Online: 2016-1-23

Published in Print: 2016-2-1

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https://doi.org/10.1515/bot-2015-0090

Keywords for this article

flora; Halophila; Hydrocharitaceae; India; new record; seagrass