Diversity and Abundance of Cladoceran Zooplankton in Wular Lake, Kashmir Himalaya

Javaid Ahmad Shah,Ashok K Pandit

doi:10.19026/rjees.5.5668

Abstract

The present study was carried out on Wular lake, the largest freshwater lake of India to obtain a baseline data on the dynamics of species composition and density of cladoceran zooplankton for the period of one year from September 2010 to August 2011 at five different study sites. Investigations revealed about 23 species of Cladocera belonging to six families were reported during the entire study. Among the six families, Chydoridae was numerically dominant, being represented by nine species, followed by Daphnidae with seven species, Bosminidae, Moinidae and Sididae with two species each and Macrothricidae with only one species. Shannon index was noticed highest for site III reflecting the stable environmental conditions of this biotope.

Highlights

Zooplankton holds a central position in the food chain of most of the lakes, reservoirs and ponds and are highly sensitive to environmental variations which as a result bring changes in their abundance, species diversity or community composition, because most species have short generation time (Pandit, 1980; Sharma et al, 2008; Shah and Pandit, 2013)
In view of the fact that no published report on zooplankton community is available on Wular lake a Ramsar site, in Kashmir Himalaya
Species composition: Twenty three species of Cladocera belonging to six families were recorded from the wetland

Summary

Introduction

Zooplankton holds a central position in the food chain of most of the lakes, reservoirs and ponds and are highly sensitive to environmental variations which as a result bring changes in their abundance, species diversity or community composition, because most species have short generation time (Pandit, 1980; Sharma et al, 2008; Shah and Pandit, 2013). The present study is, aimed to collate a baseline data on the cladoceran community of Wular lake in terms of spatial and temporal variations in species composition and abundance by using various diversity indices.

Results

Conclusion