Study of zooplankton emergence pattern and resting egg diversity of recently dried waterbodies in North Maharashtra Region

Seasonal patterns of temperature, pH, conductivity dissolved oxygen, phosphate and sulphate have been studied on the basis of physico-chemical characteristics of pond ecosystem. Importance of soil egg banks and their contribution to the diversity in freshwater ecosystem has been studied. We have focussed our attention on soil egg bank diversity and zooplankton emergence patterns of some recently dried aquatic habitats, comparing to that of neighbouring temporary pools with the permanent ponds. The emergence pattern from the soil egg bank followed an orderly succession from Protists-Rotifers and Crustaceans have been investigated. Dominant Protists emerged from the egg bank were Lacrymaria within rotifers. They were the first to emerge followed by Hexarthra blooms. The diversity of zooplankton in permanent ponds was significantly higher (i.e., 19) than the diversity in the ephemeral pools (i.e., 08). However; the zooplankton abundance in the ephemeral pools was higher with more than an order of magnitude, than that in ponds. Interestingly the number of species recorded in the egg bank was more than those present in the water columns of the pools. We have recorded 08 species of rotifera i.e. Lecane sp L curvicornis, L. bulla, K. quadrata, B. patulus, B. rubens, Branchionus calyciflorus, Testudinella sp which were not present in the neighboring permanent or ephemeral waterbodies during that period. Unequivocally suggest that in order to understand the zooplankton biodiversity; it is also important to evaluate the diversity of egg bank present in the sediment. A total 19 species were recorded including Copepoda 06 sp, Cladocera 05 sp and Rotifera 08 sp.