Do Littoral Macrophytes Influence Crustacean Zooplankton Distribution?

Abstract

In a meso-eutrophic reservoir, cladoceran and copepod assemblages were characterised in two sampling sites: One located in the pelagic zone (site 1) and the other in the shallow littoral zone (site 2), the latter colonised by emergent macrophytes. Samples were collected biweekly from June to July 2001 and from May to July 2002 at the two sites. At site 1, crustacean zooplankton samples were obtained by vertical hauls using a Wisconsin type net of 64 mm mesh size. At site 2 several random samples were obtained using a van Dorn bottle. Those samples were pooled together and the total sample was sieved through a 64 mm mesh size. Macrophyte relative abundance for each species was visually estimated. Macrophyte community was composed of Glyceria declinata, Eleocharis palustris and Carex sp. A Mann-Whitney U-test was carried out to test for statistically significant differences between sites, for environmental parameters and crustacean zooplankton species densities. Alona rectangula, Alona costata, Alona quadrangularis and Chydorus sphaericus were only found in littoral samples. Daphnia longispina, Daphnia pulex, Ceriodaphnia pulchella, Bosmina longirostris, Diaphanosoma brachyurum, Copidodiaptomus numidicus, and Acanthocyclops robustus were found at both sites. However, Daphnia and Bosmina densities did not differ significantly between the pelagic and littoral sites. Ceriodaphnia, Diaphanosoma, and C. numidicus densities were significantly higher in the pelagic site, whereas A. robustus densities showed the opposite pattern. Key-words: Zooplankton, Cladocera, Copepoda, reservoir, macrophytes, pelagic zone, littoral zone