Abundance and distribution of zooplankton communities inhabiting the intertidal zone of the Suez Gulf, Red Sea, Egypt

Abstract

Zooplankton communities at the Gulf of Suez were investigated during the current study and their abundance was correlated with the physicochemical parameters of the area. The goal of the study was to estimate the distribution and abundance of zooplankton taxa under various habitat stressors and update the ecological database of the study area. The study recorded 39 species of zooplankton in 16 taxa with a total abundance of 66300 organisms across all investigated sites. The organisms were distributed between holoplankton that recorded approximately 55560 organisms (84.2 %) and meroplankton which recorded approximately 10740 organisms (15.8 %). The most abundant groups were Copepoda 52340 organisms (78.9 %), larval stages (11%) and Maxillopoda (3 %). While, Anthomedusea, Leptomeduea, and Pteropods were rarely recorded. Among the surveyed sites, Zafarana recorded the highest abundance (23537 Organisms) with a percentage of 63 of the total zooplankton populations, whereas the lowest site in abundance was Port-Tewfik which recorded (6656 organisms), represented a percentage of 10 % of the total populations. The current work showed that copepods recorded a significant difference in spatial distribution, while copepods, dissolved oxygen, water temperature, and total dissolved solids differed significantly at temporal distribution.