Impact of Physico-Chemical and Biological Parameters on Zooplankton Composition and Abundance in Freshwater Lake of Mulukanoor Karimnagar District, Telangana

Abstract

The plankton constitutes the basic food sources of any aquatic ecosystem, which Supports fish and other aquatic animals. Zooplankton diversity is one of the most important ecological parameters in water quality assessment. Zooplankton is good indicator of the changes in water quality because they are strongly affected by environmental conditions and respond quickly to changes in water quality. In the present paper, Zooplankton diversity in relation to physico-chemical parameters of the Mulukanoor Lake located in Krimnagar District, Telangana state.The study was carried out for a period of one year from June 2015 to May 2016 to evaluate the relationship and influence between different water quality parameters and the abundance of zooplankton population. The physico-chemical parameters includes Temperature, Electrical Conductivity, Total Dissolved Solids, Water Transparency, PH, Dissolved Oxygen.Free Co2, Total Alkalinity, Total Hardness, Chloride, Biological Oxygen Demand, Phosphate, Nitrate and Ammonia were analyzed. All the values of these parameters were found within the prescribed standard limits. Therefore this lake has rich number of species biodiversity of aquatic animals. Four different groups of zooplankton were identified in this study which includes Rotifera, Cladocera, Copepoda and Ostracoda. Zooplankton diversity and abundance refers to variety within in the community. Numerically rotifers were dominant group throughout the study period. The season wise zooplankton analysis showed a maximum average abundance of species in Post-Monsoon season, minimum abundance in monsoon season due to the different environmental and inflow characteristics of the water body. The composition of zooplankton rotifers was dominant Rotifera(56%) followed by cladocera (23%), copepod (13%) and ostracoda (8%).Therefore it can be now concluded that this lake is highly potential to take up commercial fisheries.