Journal of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development Review Article Biswas P , et al. J Fish Aqua Dev: JFAD-124. Footprints of Climate Change on Fish Community of Mangrove Dominated Lower Gangetic Delta Pavel Bis was 1 , Tanmay Ray Chaudhuri 1 , Pallavi Dutta 1 , Manju Das 1 , Sufia Zaman 1 , Abhi jit Mi tra 2* 1Department of Oceanography, Techno India University West Bengal, Salt Lake Campus, Kolkata, India 2Department of Marine Science, Un iversity of Calcutta, Kolkata, India *Corresponding author: Abhijit Mitra, Faculty Member, Department of Marine Science, Calcutta University, Kolkata 700019, West Bengal, India . Tel: +91 9831269550; Email: abhijit_ mitra@hot mail.co m Citation: Biswas P, Chaudhuri TR, Dutta P, Das M, Zaman S, Mit ra A (2017). Footprints of Climate Change on Fish Community of Mangrove Dominated Lower Gangetic Delta. J Fish Aqua Dev: JFA D-124. Received Date: 15 September, 2017; Accepted Date: 21 September, 2017: Published Date: 29 September, 2017 Climate Change and Mangrove Fish Community: A noted area of interest Climate change is an inevitable truth of the present era. Global, regional and local effects of climate change on biotic community are ultimately the sum of processes which act on individual organisms. Perceptible changes are evident in the past few decades in the climate of the planet Earth as manifested by increase in air and water temperature. This has triggered the alteration of salinity profile in marine and estuarine compart- ment, and more specifically at the river mouth and estuarine systems that are connected to glaciers. The fish communities thriving in these dynamic systems shift or orient (adapt) themselves in response to ecological conditions. Scenario of Indian Sundarbans in the lower Gangetic delta The mangrove ecosystem of Indian Sundarbans is an ideal zone for such study as the western and central sectors of the deltaic lobe are drastically different from each other with respect to salinity owing to the connections of the rivers in the western zone (Hugli and Mooriganga) with the Himalayan glaciers. Construction of the Farakka barrage on the Ganga River in April, 1975 to augment water supply to the Calcutta port has brought about a significant increase in freshwater discharge in its distributary, the Hugli estuary. The rivers in the central sector, on the other hand have lost their connections with Ganga-Bhagirathi system in course of time and are now tide-fed in nature. The average salinity in the western sec-tor of Indian Sundarban ranges from 6-25 psu which is far less than the salinity observed in the central sector (average salinity 10 - 29 psu) considering the yearly average data of 2014-2015 (Mitra and Zaman, 2014; M itra and Zaman, 2015) [1,2]. This variation probably caused a compositional variation in fish community. The western sector showed the presence of more economically important fish species in comparison to trash fishes that may be attributed to decreasing trend of salinity in this zone (Table 1) in recent times. Place Pre Farakka Post Farakka Post Farakka Post Farakka Post Farakka (19 60 -61) (1985) (1995) (2005)* (2017)* K ak d w i p 3 2 . 80 1 5 .1 0 1 3 . 93 8.56 8 .1 5 (w es t ern ) Canning 2 8 . 00 2 8 .9 0 2 6 . 70 1 1 . 34 12.60 (cent ral ) Table 1: S alinity (in psu) variation in Indian S undarbans after the commissioning of the Farakka barrage . Volume 2017; Issue 05 Citation: Biswas P, Chaudhuri T R, Dutta P, Das M, Zaman, S, Mitra A(2017) Footprints of Climate Change on Fish Community of Mangrove Dominated Lower Gangetic Delta. J Fish Aqua Dev: JFAD-124.