NorCal Open Access Publications Journal of Aquatic Research and NORCAL Marine Sciences OPEN ACCESS PUBLICATION Volume 1; Issue 1 Manickam N et al. Research Article Seasonal Variations in Species Composition and Com- munity Structure of Zooplankton in a Two Perennial Lakes of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, Southern India Narasimman Manickam1,2*, Periyakali Saravana Bhavan2 and Perumal Santhanam1 1Marine Planktonology & Aquaculture Laboratory, Department of Marine Science, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli-620 024, Tamil Nadu, India 2Crustacean Biology Laboratory, Department of Zoology, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore-641 046, Tamil Nadu, India *Corresponding author: Narasimman Manickam, Marine Planktonology & Aquaculture Laboratory, De- partment of Marine Science, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli 620024, Tamil Nadu, India, E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] Received Date: 9 October, 2017; Accepted Date: 23 October, 2017; Published Date: 12 April, 2018 Abstract lake management measures should be adopted by public and governmental organizations to sustain these ecosystems for fu- The present investigation was carried out in selected lakes of Co- ture generations. imbatore: Sulur and Ukkadam, Tamil Nadu, Southern India. The seasonal variations of zooplankton species composition and di- Keywords versity were studied for a period of two years from March-2012 - February-2014, on monthly interval basis of four seasons like Biodiversity; Crustacean Zooplankton; Rotifera; Sulur Lake; summer, pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon. Totally 34 Ukkadam Lake species of zooplankton, which include 11 species of Rotifera, 10 species of Cladocera, 7 species of Copepoda and 6 species Introduction of Ostracoda were recorded and identified from Sulur lake and 28 species of zooplankton comprising 10 species of Rotifera, 8 Freshwater zooplankton plays a main role in ponds, lakes and Cladocera, 6 Copepoda and 4 Ostracoda were recorded in Ukka- reservoirs ecosystem with food chain of the aquatic ecosystem dam lake. The Rotifera was found to be predominant with 34% [1,2]. Zooplankton communities play an important role in the followed by crustacean zooplankton of Cladocera (31%), Co- function of aquatic ecosystems by providing linkages in food pepoda (25%) and Ostracoda (10%) at Sulur lake while in Ukka- dam lake for Rotifera were found to be predominant with 35% webs through consuming primary and small secondary produc- followed by Cladocera (30%), Copepoda (27%) and Ostracoda tion and providing food to higher trophic consumers [3-6]. The (8%). The population density of zooplankton recorded at Su- zooplankton species were eating millions of little algae, bacteria lur lake was ranged between 51,895 and 1,07,505 ind./L and in and minute invertebrates which may otherwise grow out-of- Ukkadam lake it was 89,385 and 1,89,435 ind./L. Zooplankton control state. As filter feeders, a community of zooplankton can population was found to be higher in summer months (March filter through the volume of an entire lake in a matter of days. to May-2013) while lower in monsoon months (September to Especially zooplankton is more important live feed source of November-2012) and intermediate numbers were recorded dur- many omnivorous and carnivorous of fin-fish and shell-fish and ing post-monsoon season in the Sulur and Ukkadam lakes. The support the necessary amount of high nutrients of protein for present result revealed that the zooplankton productivity was high. Therefore, it could be continuously utilized for the inland the larval growth. Zooplankton is sensitive to changes in aquatic aquaculture purposes if properly water quality management environment and has been suggested to be good biological in- measures are adopted in the lakes ecosystem. Hence at regular dicators for water quality, lake trophic state, and types of water intervals monitoring of water quality, proper maintenance and mass [7-9]. NorCal Open Access Publications .01. Citation: Manickam N, Bhavan PS, Santhanam P (2017) Seasonal Variations in Species Composition and Community Structure of Zooplankton in A Two Perennial Lakes of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, Southern India. J Aquat Res Mar Sci 2017: 1-12. DOI: https://doi.org/10.29199/ARMS.101013. The zooplankton has belonging to four major groups of includ- [16,20,21] like European countries, USA, Canada etc. Through ing Rotifera and crustacean zooplankton of Cladocera, Copep- these researches, vast nutrients into lakes, especially phosphorus oda and Ostracoda. They are highly sensitive to environmental and nitrogen, have been proved to be the major cause of lake variation of water quality, as a result change in their abundance, eutrophication and degradation of aquatic ecosystem [22]. The species composition, species diversity and community structure observation of present study is to investigate seasonal variation can provide important indication of environmental change or in species composition, percentage composition, population disturbance. Moreover, due to their short life cycle, these com- density, species diversity, species richness and evenness of zoo- munities often respond quickly to environmental change. Zoo- plankton from the two perennial lakes. plankton offer several advantages as indicators of environmental quality in both lakes and rivers: as a group, they have worldwide Materials and Methods distribution and the species composition and community struc- ture are sensitive for changes in environmental conditions, nu- Study area trient enrichment [10,11] and different levels of pollution [12]. In many lakes all over the world, the eutrophication has caused The two freshwater perennial lakes namely Sulur (Station-1; a drastic change in the biological structure, the disappearance of Lat: 11º1 N; Long: 77º7 E) and Ukkadam (Station-2; Lat: 10º59 submerged macrophyte and the regime shift of aquatic ecosys- N; Long: 76º57 E) in Coimbatore District, Southern India were tem [13,14]. Eutrophication is a kind of nutrient enrichment pro- selected for present investigation. Two sampling sites were fixed cess of water body, which often results in an excessive growth of in each lake as shown in figure 1 and samplings were done from phytoplankton, an extremely low transparency and a significant March-2012 - February-2014. These lakes were brought under decrease in species diversity [15,16]. During the past centuries, Department of Fisheries, Govt. of Tamil Nadu, India, and main- lake eutrophication, as a worldwide environmental problem, has ly used for culturing common carps such as Catla catla, Labeo been a serious threat to aquatic organism survival and drinking rohita and Cirrhinus mrigala. Some aquatic plants like algae and water safety of surrounding residents [17], and a major cause of other water grasses are commonly seen in the lakes. A number concern in the developing countries [18,19] like China, India, of migratory birds are encountered in the lakes during winter Bangladesh, Pakistan etc., as well as the developed countries season. Ukkadam Lake Sulur Lake Figure 1: Satellite view of study area. J Aquat Res Mar Sci 2017: 1-12. 02 . Citation: Manickam N, Bhavan PS, Santhanam P (2017) Seasonal Variations in Species Composition and Community Structure of Zooplankton in A Two Perennial Lakes of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, Southern India. J Aquat Res Mar Sci 2017: 1-12. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of plankton Weaner’s formula [29]; H1 =pi ∑ log2 pi, I = 1s, Where, H1 species diversity in bits of information per individual, pi - ni / N The plankton samples were collected during early morning be- (proportion of the sample belonging to the species), ni Num- tween 5.00 and 6.00 AM, at first week of the month. The zoo- ber of individual in all the sample; Species Richness (SR) was plankton samples were collected using Towing-Henson’s stand- calculated as described by Gleason [30]; D = 1 - C, Where, C = ard plankton net (150 µm mesh) by towing horizontally at surface ∑ pi2, pi - ni/N, ni – N/S, N Total number of individuals, S for about 10 minutes with uniformly 10 km speed of boat. For Number of species in the collection; Evenness index (J1) was the quantitative analysis100 liters of water were filtered through calculated by using the formula of Pielous (1966); J1 = H1/log2 a plankton net made up of bolting silk (No: 10, mesh size: 150 s, Where, H1 = species diversity in bits of information per indi- µm) using a 10-liter capacity plastic container. After filtering vidual, S = Number of species. Shannon and Weaner’s species out the water, the plankton biomass was transferred to specimen diversity index (H1), Species Richness (SR), and Evenness index bottles containing 5% of neutralized formalin and subjected to (J) were analysed using the PAST (Palaeontological Statistics), microscopic analysis. Zooplankton is segregated group wise un- software (ver. 2.02). der a binocular stereo zoom dissection microscope using a fine needle and brush. Individual species of plankton was mounted on microscopic slides on a drop of 20% glycerin after staining Results with eosin and rose bengal. Species composition (Qualitative analysis) The identification of zooplankton was made referring the stand- Totally 34 species of zooplankton were recorded in the Sulur ard manuals, text books and monographs [23-27] using a com- lake (Tables 1 and 2) and (Figures 2 and 3). Off these, 11 spe- pound microscope and photomicrographs were taken using, In- cies were contributed by Rotifera (3 families and 4 genera), 10 verted Biological Microscope (Model Number INVERSO 3000 Cladocera (4 families and 6 genera), 7 Copepoda (2 families (TC-100) CETI) attached a camera (Model IS 300). The 1 ml and 5 genera) and 6 Ostracoda (1 family and 6 genera). A total of sample was taken with a wide mouthed pipette and poured of 28 species of zooplankton were recorded from the Ukkadam into the counting cell of the Sedg-wick counting Rafter follow- lake, which comprising 10 species of Rotifera (2 families and 3 ing Santhanam et al., [28] and counted under light microscope. genera), 8 Cladocera (4 families and 6 genera), 6 Copepoda (2 Species diversity index (H) was calculated using Shannon and families and 5 genera) and 4 Ostracoda (1 family and 4 genera).