Ecological morphotaxometry of trematodes of garfish (Teleostomi: Belonidae) from Gangetic riverine ecosystem in India. III. Principal component analysis in the dynamics of Cephalogonimus yamunii (Upadhyay, Jaiswal, Malhotra and Malhotra, 2012)

The attributes of multivariate analyses were applied to infer peculiarity in distribution dynamics of Cephalogonimus yamunii Upadhyay et al. (J Parasit, 2012) in Xenentodon cancilla under influence of interionic interactions amongst hydrobiological factors. Non-parametric Mann–Whitney’s Test χ² statistic was significant for the effect of Dissolved Oxygen and magnesium. The temperature optimum 23–27 °C was concluded for expression of peak prevalence and mean intensity during change in water temperature between autumn and winter periods. The dominant Ist component (PC1 ^p ) from Principal Component Analysis of monthwise response of infection data by C. yamunii in X. cancilla was further confirmed by Scree Plot of Eigenvalues and Factor Loadings Plot to identify the critical impact of hardness of water on infection prevalence and mean intensity. The findings of larger PC1 ^p positive coefficients comprehensively substantiated predominating hardness factor, under the influence of enhanced Dissolved Oxygen and optimum thermal effect. Therefore, the role of multifactorial etiology is a definite possibility.