Zooplankton as Indicators of Pollution and Seasonal Water Quality
Introduction:
An introduction to the topic “Zooplankton as Indicators of Pollution and Seasonal Water Quality”Zooplankton, the microscopic animals drifting in aquatic ecosystems, serve as essential links in the food chain and as bioindicators of environmental health. Their diversity, abundance, and presence directly reflect water quality, making them valuable in assessing ecological conditions and pollution levels in lakes and wetlands.
Seasonal variations, particularly in temperature, dissolved oxygen, and nutrient concentrations, significantly affect zooplankton populations.
This blog post draws from an academic review focused on the sensitivity of zooplankton to environmental changes and their role in monitoring aquatic pollution.
It offers insights useful for researchers, ecologists, and conservation planners working with freshwater habitats like Bichnaiyya Lake.
Table of Contents
Excerpt Section:
Zooplankton are considered as micro vital invertebrate of the aquatic ecosystem that play an important role between producer and consumer. The biotic element known as zooplankton is responsible for determining the functional characteristics of aquatic ecosystems, including the nutrient cycle, food web, and food chain.
Hence, the study of zooplankton become a point of attraction for ecologists. Hutchinson (1959) discussed the reason behind the diversity and richness of the zooplankton population.
Freshwater zooplankton are classified as, Cladocera, Copepoda, Rotifera, and Ostracoda. Microcrustacean, Cladoceraans are commonly known as “water fleas”. Another crustacean zooplankton is Copepoda.
It belongs to the phylum Arthropoda. Copepoda can exist in stagnant aquatic environments. But they are unable to survive in polluted environments and gradually disappear (Das et al., 1996).
Rotifera is an important planktonic group of organisms in the aquatic environment. They possess different morphological features and high richness and studies have been done to understand their community structure (Sharma and Sharma, 2005).
The species of the group of Rotifers Branchious forficula, Lecane bulla and Keratella tropica; Copepods, Mesocyclops hyalinious, Phyllodiaptomus; Cladocera, Bosminia longirostris;
Daphnia species and Protozoa Centeropyxis species are found dominant during study time from all three sites of Lake.
Jindal et al. (2010), reported 6 species from Rotifers, and 5 from Copepods from Hillstream Nogli at Rampur Bhusnar, District Shimla. Study on Rotifera diversity was done by Sharma and Sharma (2012), in Deepor Beel-a Ramsar site.
They observed 154 species in rotifers which considered as richest environmental heterogeneity of biodiversity hotspot.
Seasonal variations in zooplankton and phytoplankton density were studied in the Gomti river of Lucknow, India by Singh (2013) who reported that plankton community act as bio indicator for pollution level.
Manickam et al. (2014), found that at the Perennial reservoir in thoppaiyar, Dharmapuri District, South India, Rotifers were the predominant zooplankton group, next by copepoda and cladocera.
The presence of macrophytes within the lake helps to boost zooplanktons species richness in Vereda Wetland Region, Brazil (Pineseet et al., 2015).
Aquatic biodiversity following physico–chemical properties was assessed by Taran et al. (2016), in a freshwater lake of Tripura, India. The Planktons communities of Serlui ‘B’ Dam, Mizoram was observed by Lalmingiani and Lalrinpuria (2017).
Zooplankton diversity is strongly influenced by the increased temperature during summer in Ukkadam Lake, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India, (Manickam et al., 2018).
The hydrographical features of lake water mostly impact the richness of zooplankton species, as well as indicator of pollution and water quality indicator.
Protozoan species are next dominant after Copepods. Protozoan was first reported in the 16th century by Anton Von Leeuwenhoek who is regarded as the father of Protozoology.
Rajsekhar et al. (2009) emphasized their study on zooplankton diversity at the trophic level within three freshwater lake habitats of District Gulbarga, North East Karnataka, South India.
Dutta et al. (2009) reported 11 species of Protozoans as dominant in Gurha Brahmara, Jammu. Cladocerans are dominant and useful microbe as food of vertebrates.
Small bivalve poorly segmented micro-crustaceans possessing a calcareous bivalved carapace, with entire body parts fully enclosed, are referred to as Ostracods (Viehberg, 2006). Thus, can survive in all aquatic habitats.
The species richness trend of zooplankton in relation to several physical-chemical factors was studied by Rajagopal et al. (2010), in three permanent ponds in Tamilnadu’s Virudhunagar district.
The density ratio of zooplankton was found higher in winter and lower in summer. Relationship between zooplankton diversity and several physicochemical properties of water observed by Sadashivappam et al. (2011), in Kundavada lake of Devangere District, Karnataka, India.
Source Citation:
Researcher’s full name: Chaudhary Narendra Kumar
Title: Seasonal variations in hydrological parameters and status of fish diversity in Bichnaiyya Lake wetland of District Basti, UP, India
Guide(s): Srivastav Susmita
University: Siddharth University
Completed Date: 2024
Excerpt Page Number: Pages 15 to 17
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