Blue Carbon in Faunal Community - Blue Carbon Reservoir of the Blue Planet - page 207

Table 6.1 Interrelationships between aquatic salinity, pH and oyster variables
Row
no.

Combination Western sector Central sector Eastern sector

r -Value p -Value r -Value p -Value r -Value p -Value

1 Oyster population × salinity 0.9514 <0.01 0.8430 <0.01 0.8980 <0.01

Oyster population × aquatic pH 2 0.8567 <0.01 − 0.8089 <0.01 0.7477 <0.01

3 Oyster shell length × salinity 0.8882 <0.01

− 0.2569

IS 0.9561 <0.01

4 Oyster shell length × aquatic pH 0.8567 <0.01 0.2069 IS 0.8792 <0.01

5 Oyster shell weight × salinity 0.7387 <0.01 0.4558 <0.05 0.8788 <0.01

−

6 Oyster shell weight × aquatic pH 0.6285 <0.01 0.3339 IS 0.7496 <0.01

Oyster flesh weight × salinity

7 − 0.0933 <0.01 0.2495 IS − 0.1104 IS

8 Oyster flesh weight × aquatic pH

− 0.1032

IS

− 0.1833

IS

− 0.1804

IS

9 Oyster shell carbon × salinity 0.7778 <0.01 − 0.4657 <0.05 0.8748 <0.01

10 Oyster shell carbon × aquatic pH 0.6886 <0.01 0.3576 IS 0.7541 <0.01

11 Oyster flesh carbon × salinity − 0.0709 IS 0.2762 IS − 0.0793 IS

12 Oyster flesh carbon × aquatic pH

− 0.0856

IS

− 0.2167

IS

− 0.1278

IS

13 Oyster shell weight × oyster shell

carbon

0.9578 <0.01 0.9457 <0.01 0.9917 <0.01

Oyster flesh weight × oyster flesh
carbon

14 0.9475 <0.01 0.9313 <0.01 0.9506 <0.01

Fig. 6.10 Decreasing
trend in aquatic salinity
over a period of 23 years
(1990 - 2012) in western
Indian Sundarbans (Graph
designed in MATLAB by
Dr. Nibedita
Mukhopadhyay,
Environmentalist)

2011 , 2012 ; Sengupta et al. 2013 ), which may
play a regulatory role on the pH and subse-
quently on the dissolution process of calcareous
shell of oyster. Further research needs to be
carried out to identify the role of ambient aquatic
salinity in the dissolution mechanism of mollus-
can shell.
The soft mass of the oyster (

coef cient values between aquatic pH, oyster

fl esh carbon (Table 6.1 ).

The authors also conducted a viability study
of carbon storage by oyster community and
observed that during a span of 23 years
(1990

esh weight and oyster fl

esh
ranged from 348.85 kg m − 2 (during 2009 at
eastern sector) to 937.90 kg m − 2 (during 1991 at
western sector). This means a sequestration rate
of 15.17

2012), the stored carbon in oyster fl

-

eshy part within
the shell) is, however, resistant to lowering of pH
as evidenced by the insigni

fl

40.78 kg m − 2 year − 1 . The stored carbon cant correlation

-