Plankton and Water Quality Indicators: 2025 Zoology Thesis Excerpt
Introduction:
In introduction to Plankton and Water Quality Indicators: 2025 Zoology Thesis Excerpt, Plankton—tiny floating organisms—play an outsized role in the health and productivity of aquatic ecosystems.
This excerpt from a 2025 Zoology thesis highlights the importance of both phytoplankton and zooplankton as indicators of water quality and ecosystem dynamics.
Their abundance and diversity serve as natural biosensors of environmental change and help sustain aquatic food webs.
Table of contents
Excerpt Section
“Plankton is supposed as an index of productivity of the water body (Fraser, 1962). Plankton are microscopic aquatic forms of life. They live in the photic zone of aquatic habitats, while some species are also found in deep water.
In all aquatic ecosystems, plankton forms the base of food web.
Plankton found floating in water bodies and were first recognized in 1845 by John Miller. The term plankton is attributed to the oceanographer Victor Hensen (1887). The study of plankton is called Planktology (Emiliani,1991).
The term Plankton comes from the ancient Greek word Planktons, which means “floating” or “drifting”. They drift about in water under the action of water movement, mostly they are small but many of them are minute.
Plankton is simply a heterogeneous group of tiny organisms (phytoplankton and zooplankton) adapted to a suspended lifestyle in a water body. They form the base of the nutrient cycle in an ecosystem.
Phytoplankton are the autotrophic component and are the main part of the ecosystem of the freshwater bodies, oceans, and seas. They are unicellular, multicellular, colonial, or filamentous and in adherent form. They are known as sea herbs.
Most of them in addition, maintain the balance between biotic and abiotic factors. They are the primary food item of fish.
The number and species components of phytoplankton help to assess the water quality. They are very sensitive to the environmental changes and act as good detectors of water purity.
They are sensitive indicators of damage to the environment and therefore many phytoplankton species are used as indicators of water quality.
The composition, and plenty of microscopic marine algae are fundamental characteristics for evaluating the trophic status of water body, and for evaluating the possible or optimal use of the water resource.
As a main constituent of the aquatic ecosystem, the phytoplankton community changes significantly in response to physicochemical factors.
The study of phytoplankton thus aids in determining the tropic status and organic contamination in an ecosystem (Ramchandra and Solanki, 2007).
Zooplankton are tiny organisms that swim or drift in the water column of lakes, rivers, seas, oceans, and other water bodies with limited potency of movement.
Most of them are microscopic, unicellular, or multicellular forms which vary from a few microns to millimetres or more.
Along with the size variation, they differ in morphological characters and taxonomic rank.
Zooplankton are primarily heterotopic (primary consumers) and play a crucial role in the food chai.
They are critical parts of aquatic ecosystems, forming the basis of many freshwater and marine food webs.
The availability and versatility of the zooplankton community play key role in aquaculture management. Their abundance depends on the availability of phytoplankton as food.
Therefore, they are found at an upper trophic level after phytoplankton in energy level and serve as food for fish. Protozoa, Rotifers, Cladocera, Copepods, and Ostracods and their eggs and larval forms constitute the main zooplankton groups.
They are critical components of the water food chain and significantly contribute to aquatic productivity in a freshwater environment. They play a major role in studying the fauna biodiversity of aquatic ecosystems.
The zooplankton population is crucial in transporting energy from the primary to secondary tropic level. The freshwater zooplankton is very keen on alterations in water conditions, such as DO, pH, and nutrient load.”
Source Citation
Researcher: Chaudhary Narendra Kumar
Thesis Title: Seasonal variations in hydrological parameters and status of fish diversity in Bichnaiyya Lake (wetland) of district Basti (U.P.), India
University and Department: Siddharth University , zoology
Year of Submission: 2025 (from file metadata)
Page Number: Pages 4–6
Discover more from Professor Of Zoology
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.