inventory of free-living marine nematodes from Asia’s largest coastal lagoon, Chilika, India

The present study revealed an inventory of free-living marine nematode species from the Asia’s largest coastal lagoon, Chilika (lat. 19°28′ and 19°54′N; long. 085°05′ and 085°38′E), located in the East Coast of India and facing the Bay of Bengal. This study provided a checklist of 64 free-living marine nematode species belonging to 32 genera and 13 families. Among these, marine nematode species Oncholaimus oxyuris has been reported as new distributional record from Indian waters. The distribution of encountered nematode species was investigated in relation with environmental variables such as salinity and sediment texture throughout the lagoon. Most of the nematode species were found in stations which had high salinity (>6) and nature of sediments varied from sandy to silt/clay. However, few nematode families (e.g. Oncholaimidae and Microlaimidae) were also observed in low salinity stations of the lagoon indicating tolerance to variation in salinity.