Check List 9(5): 920-940, doi: 10.15560/9.5.920
An assessment of angiosperm diversity of Adyar estuary, Chennai — a highly degraded estuarian ecosystem, Tamil Nadu, India
expand article infoKaliyamurthy Karthigeyan‡, Ilangovan Kumaraswamy§, Wilson Arisdason‡
‡ Botanical Survey of India, India§ Regional Ecology and Environmental Federation (REEF), India

Corresponding author: Kaliyamurthy Karthigeyan ( karthigeyan.murthy@gmail.com )

© 2017 Kaliyamurthy Karthigeyan, Ilangovan Kumaraswamy, Wilson Arisdason.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Karthigeyan K, Kumaraswamy I, Arisdason W (2013) An assessment of angiosperm diversity of Adyar estuary, Chennai — a highly degraded estuarian ecosystem, Tamil Nadu, India. Check List 9(5): 920-940. https://doi.org/10.15560/9.5.920
Open Access
Abstract
Estuaries are coastal ecosystems which are commonly known to support unique flora and fauna. The Adyar estuary is a severely damaged ecosystem due to developmental activities in the urban city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Botanical explorations were conducted in and around Adyar estuary during 2008 to 2010 to document the diversity and distribution of angiosperms. A total of 252 species and 2 varieties of angiosperms belonging to 196 genera, distributed in 64 families from 27 orders and 10 clades/groups were recorded and are arranged according to Angiosperm Phylogeny Group III Classification. It is observed that the flora of Adyar estuary also harbours a high level of non-native species. Anthropogenic threats to the estuary and its flora are identified and conservation strategies are briefly discussed.
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