Seasonal Composition and Diversity of Zooplankton from Muthupet Mangrove Wetland Ecosystem, Southeast Coast of India

Abstract

The mangrove environment has been considered as a plankton abundant area (Robertson and Blaber 1992), and it acts as feeding and nursery platform for a variety of secondary consumers like fish and invertebrates (Chong 2007). The carbon source of mangrove wetland is the main factor for their high productivity which has always been linked to detritus-based food web (Odum and Heald 1975). Zooplankters are tiny organism which was abundantly available in all depth of the ocean. The Indian Ocean plankton bibliography was composed by Prasad (2003). Subramanian (1987) has introduced the ecological survey of primary consumers in Indian Ocean. While going in to the mangrove-associated fishes, their main primary food is zooplankton, and also there is a need to study their community structure and abundance in relation with the environment (Chong 2007). Some of the researchers has made attempt on zooplankton ecology previously in the mangrove ecosystem worldwide (Robertson et al, 1988; McKinnon and Klumpp 1998; Krumme and Liang 2004). Studying about zooplankton ecology is an important feature of biological oceanography because of their major role in the marine food chain of the aquatic environment. Zooplankton dominantly occupied the intermediate level between the primary and tertiary producers. Zooplankton distribution and their life cycle have been determined by the physical and chemical characteristics of the marine environment. The present study dealt with the assessment of diversity and abundance of zooplankton from Muthupet mangrove wetland ecosystem, Southeast coast of India, in relation to the environmental factors.