Heat Budget of three Limnological important sites of Narmada river, India

Heat budget can be defined as the amount of heat energy required annually to raise the temperature of a water body from its winter minimum to its summer maximum. To evaluate the extent to which global climate change is affecting the thermal evolution of a lake, river it is necessary to know the annual heat balance of the water body. The productivity of an aquatic body and the metabolism, physiology, behavior of organism’s inhabitat are directly or indirectly related to the temperature of the aquatic environment. The present study was aimed to ascertain the evaluation of heat storage capacity in the form of heat budget at three limnological important sites of the Narmada river. It was conducted on monthly basis for the year 2010. The heat contents were found to be ranged between 16110 – 57550 cal/cm 2 . Its highest contents were reported at koteshwar dam site while least at Maheshwar dam site. The results showed inefficient or uneconomic heat budget wherein the efficiency of conversion of heat energy towards the biomass and biogenic phenomena is minimum, it is mainly due to excessive evaporation and strong wind currents and its interruption by several submerged rocks reduce the efficiency of utilization of heat energy for biogenic phenomena. It indicated the healthy status of the river.