Biodiversity Assessment of Some Aquatic Communities Indicates the Environmental Quality of the Ecosystemsin Mekong Estuary

Abstract

The Mekong River mouths have a significance of biodiversity and biological resources, especially for the floating and benthic communities in the ecosystem. The study area belongs to 4 provinces in the lower Mekong River: Tien Giang, Tra Vinh, Ben Tre, and Soc Trang. The results of Shannon-Wiener biodiversity value assessment and Berger Parke index of 3 major aquatic communities in the area including phytoplankton, zooplankton and benthic showed that biodiversity was at low levels in terms of species composition as well as biodiversity values. More noteworthy is that the benthic animal communities were at the highest level of risk of loss and biodiversity value loss, mainly due to socio-economic activities, dam construction activities, the industrial and agricultural activities that have made the environment here, especially the sediment environment, strongly affected. The study has proposed a number of solutions to minimize the rapid decline of biodiversity of the region by specific measures from many directions: management, education, propaganda, conservation, and prevention of the factors affecting the quality of ecosystem in the region.