06-bioresourcesstatu.. - M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation

ii. Climate
The state of Orissa is located in the subtropical
belt. The Chilika lagoon is located along the Orissa
coast between Gopalpur and Puri that experience
dry sub humid and megathermal type of climate
with little or no surplus water. Generally speaking
the region experiences four different seasons:
summer (March-May), rain (June-September), postrain
(October-November) and winter (December-
February). Mostly southwest, and to a less extent
the northeast monsoons bring rain to this region.
During summer, the weather remains extremely
hot due to high insolation and long sunshine
hours. The winter is moderately cool, influenced
by flow of cold wave from north to south. The
change in climatological profile profoundly affects
the hydrography of the lagoon in a significant
manner. Table 1 depicts the climatology of solar
energy data over Chilika region. The annual cycle
of insolation over Chilika shows a trend typical of
the tropics with maximum values during premonsoon
period (March-April-May) and minimum
during monsoon period (June-July-Augnst-
September). The monsoon minimum could be
attributed to the maxtmum daylight cloud amount
and no clear sky days during the period. Albedo is
the measure of reflecting power of the surface and
therefore is an indication of the roughness of the
lagoon surface during the course of the annual
cycle. The lowest albedo observed during July to
September suggests that the lagoon surface is
iii. Geomorphological features
Chilika Lake
Within and around Chilika lagoon, a diversity of
landforms is exhibited (Rao et al., 1986). The
major geomorphic unit can be classified into (1)
Denudation, (2) Marine/coastal, (3) Fluvta, and (4)
Aeolian, which are described as follows (Figure 2)
a. Deoudatiooallandform : Consisting of mainly of
the denudational hills and inselbergs bordering
mostly southwest and northwestern part of the
Chilika lagoon, and buried Pediplain is
distributed in the western part of the lagoon
starting right from the foot up to the western
part of the lagoon boundary. Lithologically, they
comprise of Khondalites and gneissic rocks of
easternghats. The denuded hills with heights of
over 625 m are generally dissected. The trend
of the crust line extends from northeast to
southwest. The entire geomorphic unit is
covered by fairly thick vegetation.
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