~ 81 ~  International Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Studies 2015; 3(1): 81-85  ISSN: 2347-5129 (ICV-Poland) Impact Value: 5.62 (GIF) Impact Factor: 0.352 IJFAS 2015; 3(1): 81-85 © 2015 IJFAS www.fisheriesjournal.com Received: 16-06-2015 Accepted: 18-07-2015 Arti Sharma Assistant professor, Department of Zoology, University of Jammu, Jammu-18006, India. KK Sharma Professor, Department of Zoology, University of Jammu, Jammu-18006, India. Meenu Sharma Ph.D Scholar, Department of Zoology, University of Jammu, Jammu-18006, India. Correspondence Arti Sharma Assistant professor, Department of Zoology, University of Jammu, Jammu-18006, India. Alternanthera philoxeroides (alligator weed) as a habitat of macro invertebrate fauna in a freshwater pond of Jammu district, (J&K) Arti Sharma, KK Sharma, Meenu Sharma Abstract Aquatic macrophytes play an important role in structuring communities in aquatic environments by providing physical structure, increase habitat complexity and heterogeneity and affect various aquatic organisms including macro invertebrate fauna. Lentic environments possess at their littoral regions extensive macrophyte strands which constitute the abundant substrate for macro invertebrates. The abundance and variance of aquatic vegetation are the main factors determining the qualitative and quantitative richness of macro invertebrate fauna. The associations of macro invertebrates to aquatic macrophytes create numerous benefits for these, as direct or indirect obtaining of food, shelter, oxygen and other favourable conditions for their growth. The present studies extending from July, 2013 to June, 2014 were conducted to find out the association between macro invertebrates and an emergent macrophyte (Alternanthera philoxeroides) inhabiting the freshwater pond of Jammu. Studies revealed that Alternanthera philoxeroides was found to harbour 21 invertebrate taxa chiefly belonging to 3 major Phyla viz., Annelida (class Clitellata) represented by a single taxon, Arthropoda (class Insecta) represented by 18 invertebrate taxa and Molluscas comprised of 2 taxa only. Overall the mean abundance of associated macro invertebrate fauna with Alternanthera philoxeroides contributed an average of 2097 ind. m -2 . Quantitatively, Phylum Mollusca showed maximum abundance of all the three phyla and constituted an average of 1314 ind. m -2 whereas Phylum Arthropoda showed maximum abundance qualitatively. Keywords: Abundance, macro invertebrates, macrophytes, qualitatively, quantitatively. 1. Introduction Aquatic macrophytes form an important element of the aquatic environment in freshwater ecosystems. They provide diverse type of habitat to aquatic animal life, especially macro invertebrate fauna associated with them. There are many attributes of macrophytes that affect invertebrate abundance, diversity and community composition. Examples of such attributes include the architecture of the leaves and the growth habit of the plant. Many species of aquatic macrophytes and their dense strands have an enormous spatial heterogeneity and therefore not only provide shelter for many species of invertebrates but also play an important role in stabilizing environmental conditions (Nessimian and De Lima, 1997) [9] . They provide favourable conditions for many groups by serving both as substrate and food source for herbivores and periphyton feeders and subsequently for their predators (Glowacka et al., 1976; Wilcox and Meeker, 1992) [2, 20] . There is a direct relation between the quantity and richness of aquatic macrophytes and that of its associated fauna (Hynes, 1970) [4] . In addition, Hargeby (1990) [3] stated that the aquatic macrophytes’ seasonal growth is an important factor that influences the abundance of invertebrates. Needham (1929) [8] reported that macro invertebrates living on macrophytes were many times abundant than those living in bottom sediments. The organism’s body size also influences their abundance by limiting the parts a given species can occupy on the macrophyte. Smaller organism utilizes macrophytes better because they can go through crevices and can cover either sides of a leaf (Raffaelli et al., 2000) [14] . Emergent macrophytes are the most particularly productive of all aquatic macrophytes since they make the best use with their roots in sediments beneath water and their photosynthetic parts in the air. Vast amount of work has been done on macro invertebrates diversity in our district but very few work has been carried out on the association of macro invertebrates with aquatic macrophytes so the present work has been conducted to find out the association of macro