Marine Biodiversity in India

Contents: Preface. 1. Biodiversity and conservation of marine bioresources/S. Kannaiyan and K. Venkataraman. 2. Marine actinobacteria - the boundary microorganisms/K. Sivakumar, Maloy Kumar Sahu, T. Thangaradjou and L. Kannan. 3. An introduction to the sea grass resources/L. Kannan and T. Thangaradjou. 4. Coastal and marine living resources of India/J.R.B. Alfred and K. Venkataraman. 5. Marine faunal diversity of India/K. Venkataraman and J.R.B. Alfred. 6. Indian coral reefs: functions, threats and management issues/Rajkumar Rajan R. Jeyabaskaran and K. Venkataraman. 7. Corals of India/J.R.B. Alfred and K. Venkataraman. 8. Management strategies for corals of India/J.R.B. Alfred and Ch. Satyanarayana. 9. Overview of marine fauna of Chennai coast/K. Venkataraman. 10. Marine sponges of India/G. Sivaleela and K. Venkataraman. 11. Coral reef fishes of India/G. Gopakumar and Molly Vargese. 12. Biodiversity of commercially important crustaceans in gulf of Mannar/K. Venkataramani, B. Sundaramoorthy and P. Jawahar. 13. Conservation of syngnathid biodiversity along the Tamilnadu coast/S. Rajagopal, S. Dhanya and A. Murugan. 14. Role of marine biodiversity and its effect on fish production/M. Sakthiivel. 15. Biodiversity of brackish water areas of India--conservation status and researchable issues/C.P. Rangaswamy and A.G. Ponniah. 16. Applications of informatics ins marine biodiversity conservation in the Indian context/C.T. Achuthan Kutty and Aditya Kakodkar. 17. Sea snakes distribution, habitat, feeding strategies and threats/Padmanaban, C. Venkatraman and K. Venkataraman. 18. Coastal birds of India/C. Venkatraman.

Marine environments encompass an impressive diversity of ecosystem and habitats. Coral reefs among the planets largest and older structures created by living organisms are home to dense concentrations of species and complex webs of interspecies interactions. Though the species diversity in these ecosystems is relatively less they are important in terms of fisheries and other ecosystem services. They provide shoreline stability in the case of mangroves and sustenance of endangered species like the dugongs in the case of sea grass beds. (jacket)