International Science Community Association International Research Journal of Environmental Sciences 2319 - 1414 3 1 2014 January 22 Brachyuran Crabs as a Biomonitoring tool: A Conceptual Framework for Chemical Pollution Assessment 49 57 EN Rakib M.A. 1 Department of Disaster Management, Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur, BANGLADESH Ali M. 2 Department of Civil Engineering, Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology, BANGLADESH Akter M.S. 3 Department of Statistics, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka, BANGLADESH Bhuiyan Mohammad A.H. 4 Department of Environmental Sciences, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka, BANGLADESH Verma Apoorv 1 Department of Civil Engineering, M.M.M. Engineering College Gorakhpur- 273 010, UP, INDIA Pandey Govind 2 Gupta Piyush 1 Department of Civil Engineering, Madan Mohan Malaviya Engineering College, Gorakhpur – 273010, UP, INDIA Pandey Govind 2 National Institute of Virology, B.R.D. Medical College, Gorakhpur, UP, INDIA Gore Milind 3 Department of Community Medicine, B.R.D. Medical College, Gorakhpur, UP, INDIA Srivastava D.K. 4 Misra B.R. 5 Devi Kuruva Syamala 1 G. Narayanamma Institute of Technology and Science (For Women), Shaikpet, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, INDIA Swamy Arza V.V.S. 2 Department of Environmental Sciences, Acharya Nagarjuna University, Andhra Pradesh, INDIA krishna Ravuri Hema 3 Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. M5S 3H6 CANADA Dwivedi Naveen 1 Uttarakhand Technical University, Dehradun, UK-248007 Balomajumder Chandrajit 2 Department of Biotechnology, S.D. College of Engineering and Technology, Muzaffarnagar-251001, UP, INDIA Mondal Prasenjit 3 Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee-247667, UK, INDIA Luay A. Al-Helaly 1 Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Mosul University, IRAQ Tareq Y. Ahmed 2 Shah Abdul Barey 1 PG Department of Environmental Science, Sri Pratap P G College of Sciences, Srinagar (J&K), INDIA Sofi Shazia Majeed 2 Sharma Sushama 1 Mata Jijabai Govt. Girl’s P.G. College, Moti Tabela, Indore, MP, INDIA Thakkar Atul 2 Astral Institute of Technology and Research, Indore, MP, INDIA Kundu Sumanta 1 Wildlife Trust of India, F-13, Sector-8, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, INDIA Tiwari Sandeep Kumar 2 Singh Anil Kumar 3 Arya S. 1 Marine Biodiversity and Ecology Lab, Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara- 390002, Gujarat, INDIA Trivedi J.N. 2 Vachhrajani K.D. 3 > Research Paper 2013 11 22nd 2014 January 22 Marine ecosystem is very complex in terms of biological and ecological structure and marine organisms are integral part of this structure. In the recent era marine ecosystem has become largest dumping site for effluents of industries and it is creating serious problems at ecosystem level. So the understanding of different direct and indirect sources of pollution and its effect on marine organism population and ecosystem have got lot of ecological importance for conservation. Brachyuran crabs are highly diverse organisms comprising 700 genera and 5000 species. Crabs play important role in the maintenance of ecosystem and also in the marine food web demonstrating prey- predator relationship. The present study provides a protocol or framework to find out the effect of pollution on marine ecosystem using brachyuran crab as a bio indicator species. The present framework was divided into two different aspects viz ecological assessment and toxicological assessment and different methods have been suggested to assess the effect of pollution on brachyuran crabs for both aspects. To check the effectiveness of the framework, pilot study has been done and the results revealed that pollutants do affect different levels of ecosystem and the effect can be traced using brachyuran crab as a bioindicator species. Copyright@ International Science Community Association