Quantitative Assessment of Macrophytes Diversity and their Status in Wetlands of Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh (India)

The most significant and taxonomically varied biotic element in every aquatic environment is aquatic macrophytes. They play a vital role in maintaining the ecosystem's structure and functionality. Additionally serving as bioindicators of the general health of a water body are macrophyte kinds, variety, density, and depth. In present study, the quantitative diversity of aquatic macrophytes was assessed from different wetlands of Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya which is a central university and holds four important water bodies in Bilaspur district of Chhattisgarh state, India. A total of 33 aquatic macrophytes species were identified belonging to 21 families from wetlands of Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya. These macrophytes were grouped as floating, submerged and emergent mainly dominated by emergent macrophyte species followed by floating and submerged i.e., 23, 8 and 2 species respectively. The highest species diversity was observed in Pond 1 and 4 with 26 species each and highest species richness was observed in Pond 4 with 158 individual counts, the highest IVI was achieved by emergent Ipomoea carnea (16.492) and the highest occurring family was found to be Cyperaceae (12.12% of total species). Other diversity indices were calculated as 3.451, 0.042, 33 and 0.946 for Shannon-Wiener Index (H’), Simpson's Index (D), Species Richness (R), and Evenness (E) respectively. However, for the conservation and sustainable utilization of aquatic ecosystems, it is necessary to understand the status and importance of macrophytes to the ecosystem and its functioning.