Abstract
Wular Lake, the largest freshwater lake of India, plays a significant role in the hydrography of the Kashmir valley by acting as a huge absorption basin for floodwaters. Although rich in biodiversity, no published report is available on Copepoda diversity, distribution and abundance in such an important Ramsar Site of Kashmir Himalaya. Copepod samples, collected over a period of 12 months from September 2010 to August 2011 at five sampling sites revealed the occurrence of about 16 species belonging to 3 families namely cyclopoids with 12 species, calanoids and harpacticoids being represented by two species each. The dominant species seen were Cyclops bicolor, Eucyclops agilis, Bryocamptus nivalis and Diaptomus virginiensis. Various diversity indices like Shannon-Weaver, Margalef and Fisher_alpha were used to assess the Copepoda diversity in the lake. Further, discernible differences were observed among the studied sites showing 15 species at site III, 13 each at sites IV and II, 9 at site V and 8 at site I. Key words: Copepods, cyclopoids, composition, diversity, Ramsar Site.
Highlights
Copepods are claimed to be numerically the most abundant metazoans on earth and conservative estimations revealed that they likely outnumber the abundance of insects (Schminke, 2007; Chang et al, 2010, Hwang et al, 2004, 2010; Kâ and Hwang, 2011), representing one of the biggest sources of animal protein in the world and play a central role in the transfer of carbon from producers to higher trophic levels in most aquatic ecosystems (Jerling and Wooldridge, 1995)
A total of 16 species of copepods belonging to three families (Cyclopoida with 12 species, Calanoida and Harpacticoida with two species each) were identified (Table 2)
Cyclopoids predominated over calanoids in the present study
Summary
Copepods are claimed to be numerically the most abundant metazoans on earth and conservative estimations revealed that they likely outnumber the abundance of insects (Schminke, 2007; Chang et al, 2010, Hwang et al, 2004, 2010; Kâ and Hwang, 2011), representing one of the biggest sources of animal protein in the world and play a central role in the transfer of carbon from producers to higher trophic levels in most aquatic ecosystems (Jerling and Wooldridge, 1995). Copepods are known to consume large quantities of bacteria (Wroblewski, 1980) and phytoplankton (Calbet et al, 2000) and are the main prey items of larval and juvenile fishes that link pelagic food webs (Tseng et al, 2008; 2009; Vandromme et al, 2010; Wu et al, 2010) Their abundance and distribution are known to be influenced by hydrographic conditions and they have been suggested as indicator species for waters of different qualities and origins (Bonnet and Frid, 2004; Hwang and Wong, 2005; Thor et al, 2005; Hwang et al, 2006, 2009, 2010)
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