Zooplankton Diversity and its Relation With Some Physico-Chemical Characteristics of Water of an Ox-Bow Lake in West Bengal, India

Abstract

Zooplankton communities are the primary consumers of the aquatic ecosystem and they constitute important food source of many carnivorous and as well as omnivorous fishes. They also support necessary amount of proteins for the growth of larval carps. Distribution and diversity of zooplankton in aquatic ecosystem depend on various physico-chemical characteristics of water. Keeping in view the importance of such zooplankton community in the wetlands, a year long study was carried out in Purbasthali beel, an ox-bow lake, situated in the Burdwan district of West Bengal. Studies were undertaken to assess the physico-chemical parameters of water in each month of the study year. Zooplankton species diversity of this wetland was found to be quite high. Among the zooplankton community Copepoda showed the highest percentage (47.40%), followed by Cladocera (31.38%) and Rotifera (16.27%), while Ostracoda showed the lowest percentage of population (4.95%).