Aquatic ecosystems have been subjected to various levels of stresses in India, due to unplanned developmental activities in the last century leading to serious environmental degradation. Anthropogenic activities involving changes in land use ultimately affects the receiving water in that drainage. Activities include agriculture –inorganic fertliser, pesticides and herbicides applied to crops, silt washed away because of vegetation removal, or even atmospheric deposition, or disposal of solid and liquid wastes.   Thus, aquatic ecosystems are exposed to all local disturbances regardless of where they occur. In addition, waterways have been used for numerous activities other than providing habitat to aquatic organisms. They have been altered for transportation, diverted for agricultural and municipal needs, dammed for energy, used as an industrial coolant, and straightened for convenience. These uses, misuses and exploitation have taken their toll as evidenced by declines in fisheries, floods, droughts, loss of biodiversity and communities trying to deal with finite water supplies. The traits that make aquatic ecosystems particularly vulnerable also make them useful for monitoring environmental quality. Water serves to integrate these impacts by distributing them among the elements within these ecosystems. Although dilution is occurring, subtle changes can be detected in habitats or organisms over a much larger area that may be the result of a single point source. A clean ecosystem with a healthy biological community will be indicative of the condition of the terrestrial habitat in the watershed. Despite few attempts, much needs to be done to effectively manage and conserve aquatic resources. As is evident from the scientific literatures little is known of the national trends in populations, diversity, or biomass of diatoms, algae, and protozoa even though they provide basic functions of photosynthesis, production, and decomposition critical to the normal functioning of aquatic ecosystems. This necessitates detailed scientific investigations and without increased monitoring, some very basic attributes of aquatic systems may be unknowingly lost or severely degraded. Subtle changes such as losses of island habitat and constant water depth or level may lead to drastic declines in productivity or diversity. The loss of some of these vital components of ecosystems may be impossible to restore. This paper highlights the conservation, restoration and management aspects of aquatic ecosystem.

Energy & Wetlands Research Group,
Centre for Ecological Sciences,
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012.
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