Year: 2026 | Month: November | Volume: 13 | Issue: 11 | Pages: 82-91
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52403/ijrr.20261107
Diversity of Aquatic Fauna of Arjun Sagar and Bhegu Project in Nashik: An Illustrative Comparative Analysis Using Constructed Data
Pundlik Gavit, Mohammad Ilyas Fazil
Department of Zoology, Milliya Arts, Science and Management Science College, Beed, Maharashtra -431122
Corresponding Author: Pundlik Gavit
ABSTRACT
Aquatic fauna assessment requires a distinction between the number of taxa, their relative abundances and the completeness of sampling. This article presents an illustrative comparison of Arjun Sagar and Bhegu Project in Nashik, Maharashtra, using transparently constructed data. We conducted field surveys, specimen collection, or environmental measurements. Official records establish the geographical context, while three independent count matrices represent fish, zooplankton and macroinvertebrate assemblages across pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon categories. The matrices contain 12 fish species labels, 10 zooplankton genus labels and 10 macroinvertebrate family labels. Pooled taxon richness in the Arjun Sagar and Bhegu arrays was 12 versus 10 for fish, 10 versus 9 for zooplankton and 10 versus 8 for macroinvertebrates. Corresponding Shannon indices were 2.364 versus 2.026, 2.222 versus 1.922 and 2.219 versus 1.794. Effective diversity, expressed as the exponential of Shannon entropy, was 10.635 versus 7.586 for fish, 9.226 versus 6.833 for zooplankton and 9.197 versus 6.015 for macroinvertebrates. Jaccard similarities ranged from 0.800 to 0.900, whereas Bray-Curtis dissimilarities calculated from relative abundances ranged from 0.191 to 0.262. These differences reflect imposed richness and dominance patterns; they do establish ecological differences between the actual reservoirs. Complete count tables, explicit equations and a proposed field protocol provide a reproducible structure for replacing the illustration with verified observations.
Keywords: aquatic fauna; Arjun Sagar; Bhegu Project; Nashik; taxon richness; Hill numbers; illustrative data.
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