Current State of Zooplankton Diversity in the Pelagic Zone of Lake Tanganyika Offshore of Bujumbura City S Ndikuriyo, Lambert Niyoyitungiye, C Sibomana, D Nahimana
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Current state of zooplankton diversity in the pelagic zone of Lake Tanganyika offshore of Bujumbura City S Ndikuriyo, Lambert Niyoyitungiye, C Sibomana, D Nahimana To cite this version: S Ndikuriyo, Lambert Niyoyitungiye, C Sibomana, D Nahimana. Current state of zooplankton di- versity in the pelagic zone of Lake Tanganyika offshore of Bujumbura City. International Journal of Bioscience, Biochemistry and Bioinformatics, 2021, 3 (1), pp.10-16. hal-03300028 HAL Id: hal-03300028 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03300028 Submitted on 26 Jul 2021 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Copyright International Journal of Bioscience and Biochemistry www.biosciencejournal.net Online ISSN: 2664-6544, Print ISSN: 2664-6536 Received: 27-05-2021; Accepted: 12-06-2021; Published: 27-06-2021 Volume 3, Issue 1, 2021, Page No. 10-16 Current state of zooplankton diversity in the pelagic zone of Lake Tanganyika offshore of Bujumbura City Buhungu S1*, S Ndikuriyo1, L Niyoyitungiye1, C Sibomana1, D Nahimana2 1 Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Natural Sciences and Environmental Research Center, University of Burundi, Bujumbura, Burundi 2 Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Natural Sciences and Environmental Research Center, University of Burundi, Bujumbura, Burundi Abstract A study on the current state of zooplankton diversity in the pelagic zone of Lake Tanganyika along Bujumbura City was conducted from April to July 2020. The objective of the study was to assess zooplankton diversity for sustainable management of fishery resources and the conservation of this ecosystem. Two sampling sites were chosen. The first station was supposed to be polluted whereas the second one was considered as less polluted (or control). Zooplankton was collected with 50μm plankton net at different depths. The results obtained showed a total of 12 species identified in all the sampling stations among which, the copepods group was dominant while the rotifers group was found diversified with seven species (58.3%). The group of cladocerans represented by Moina macrocopa was identified for the first time in the pelagic zone. The calculation of the diversity index has reflected that the waters of Lake Tanganyika are classified into low level pollution category with a tolerable threshold. Therefore, the protection of Lake Tanganyika is necessary for sustainable fishery production and the future studies shall be carried out at several sites with annual sampling at a regular frequency to demonstrate the effect of seasons on the abundance of zooplankton communities. Keywords: zooplankton, diversity index, Lake Tanganyika, freshwater Introduction Lake Tanganyika is located between Burundi, Democratic Indeed, Lake Tanganyika ecosystem is threatened by several Republic of Congo, Tanzania, and Zambia. This lake is known evils leading to degradation and loss of its biodiversity and [1, 2, 3] for its high biodiversity and high fish production . With more biological richness [13, 14]. The increase of human population in than 2000 species of aquatic flora and fauna, of which at least 700 the riparian countries in general and especially in Burundi exerts are endemic [4], Lake Tanganyika is ranked among the richest freshwater ecosystems in the world [5]. an increasing pressure on this resource capable of satisfying The pelagic fauna of the Lake is mainly composed of commercial nutritional needs. The pollutants from the anthropogenic fish species, including six endemic species. These are two activities in Lake Tanganyika catchment have an impact on the Clupeidae and four species belonging to the genus Lates [6] which development of zooplankton [15]. Zooplankton is considered to be occupy the pelagic zone where they feed on phytoplankton and very sensitive and very responsive to the variations of zooplankton. Zooplankton, particularly copepods play a role in environmental conditions and climate change [16, 17]. Zooplankton fisheries management and aquaculture [7]. It is an important food species are also used as indicators of water pollution [18, 19, 20]. [8, 9] source for fish and plankton-like invertebrates . The Certain species of zooplankton disappear in the presence of high zooplankton of freshwater ecosystems is composed mainly of concentration of pollutants and the disappearance of zooplankton protozoa, rotifers, cladocerans, copepods and ostracods [10]. leads to the destruction of the lake's aquatic ecosystem resulting Thus, the zooplankton found in Lake Tanganyika is dominated in the extinction of certain species of carnivorous fish that feed by three large groups, namely the rotifers and the two subclasses on zooplankton [21]. of crustaceans (cladocerans and copepods) of which only the The main objective of this study was to assess the current state of copepods are truly pelagic. The only species representing the zooplankton diversity in the pelagic zone of Lake Tanganyika calanoids group in the pelagic zone is Tropodiaptomus simplex along Bujumbura City with a view to the sustainable management while the species Mesocyclops aequatorialis represents the and conservation of this resource. Cyclopoid group [11]. The other species are rarely or occasionally found in the pelagic zone (Coulter, 1991) [6]. In the northern part Material and Methods of Lake Tanganyika, the zooplankton community is dominated Study Area and Sampling Stations by cyclopoids and jellyfish where increased stratification results In the present study, two stations were selected. The first station in nutrient load decreasing. This process is favorable for smaller with GPS coordinates (S:3 ° 28 ’, E: 29 ° 17’) is located at 13.5km cyclopoid species. In the southern side, the amount of calanoids from the shore of Lake Tanganyika, along Nyamugari beach, in is greater than that one observed in the northern part due to higher the commune of Kabezi, Bujumbura Province. The second one concentration of diatoms which increases during ascent [11, 12]. with GPS coordinates (S:3 ° 22 ’, E:29 ° 19’) is located at 3.5 km 10 International Journal of Bioscience and Biochemistry www.biosciencejournal.net from the shore of Lake Tanganyika nearby REGIDESO water activities as it is receiving regularly the waters from both catchment point and off the port of Bujumbura. The two stations Mutimbuzi and Kinyankonge Rivers which are tributaries of have different characteristics (Figure 1). The one along Lake Tanganyika carrying the alkaline soils from the plain. Nyamugari beach was taken in the pelagic zone and served as Kinyankonge River is an outlet for Buterere wastewaters control station since it is less impacted by anthropogenic treatment plant. This second site is also affected by the activities. The other one located very close to the water catchment Ntahangwa River and to some extent by Rusizi River. area, north of the lake, was subject to be threatened by human Fig 1: Geographical location of the study area and sampling stations Sampling Analysis of Zooplankton Samples The samples for zooplankton study were collected during four The zooplanktonic species of Rotifers, Cladocerans and months from April to July 2020. This period covers part of the Copepods were identified under a binocular magnifier brand WF rainy season (April to May) and the dry season (June to July). 10X-18MM. The species identification was based on the specific Zooplankton was collected using plankton net of 50 µm-mesh morphological characters observable using different size and 26cm in diameter. According to the methodology of determination keys [22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27]. Kurki [11], samples were taken vertically over the entire water Individuals of each identified species were also counted, the column at different depths and for better diving of the net to a counting effort being set at 400 individuals. Thus, the counting desired depth, a weight of known mass is attached to the plankton rate varied according to the abundance of the species until the net. The zooplankton organisms took about 3minutes to be sample was exhausted. The zooplankton density (number of accumulated in the net, then the net is raised up to the surface and individuals / liter) was obtained by dividing the number of taxa the drain pipe is opened and let the contents of the container flow obtained in the volume of water analyzed by the volume swept into the flask. Before proceeding to the next sampling, the net was by the plankton net in the water column of the lake according to rinsed with distilled water. The samples were preserved by the following relationship [28]: adding 5ml of 4% formalin solution and the operation was repeated until the desired number of samples is reached. D = (n *1000) / V 11 International Journal of Bioscience and Biochemistry www.biosciencejournal.net Where D: the density (expressed in individuals per liter), J = H' / log2 S n: the number of individuals found in the volume of water analyzed under the microscope, Where H': is the Shannon-Weaver index, V: the volume of water swept (in ml).The obtained results were log2: is the logarithm to base 2 and used to calculate the various indices which are helpful in S: is the number of species present. characterization of the composition and evolution of The J index varies from 0 (dominance of a single species) to 1 zooplankton. (even distribution of individuals in the stands). The Shannon-Weaver diversity index accounts for the diversity of the species that make up the stands in an environment. It Statistical Analysis establishes the link between the number of species and the One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA-1) pairwise Tukey number of individuals in the same ecosystem or in the same comparison was used to compare the means of the different community.