Monthly changes in the abundance and biomass of zooplankton and water quality parameters in Kukkarahalli Lake of Mysore, India

Zooplankton abundance and distribution are of ecological importance, as they are very sensitive to change, therefore zooplankton make ideal indicators of aquatic ecosystem. This study carried out on the abundance of rotifer, cladoceran, cyclopoid-copepod and ostracod zooplankton groups and biomass of total zooplankton were studied every month for one year. It is interesting and noteworthy to note that Calanoid and Harpacticoid zooplankton groups and free carbon dioxide were completely absent in all the four sampling sites throughout the study year. About 53% of the variation in the abundance of Cladoceran, 55% of variation in the Cyclopoid-copepod, 39% of variation in the ostracod and 53% of variation in the abundance of total zooplankton were mainly due to pH. Interestingly, negative relationship was found between the total zooplankton and concentration of phosphate as in this lake 67% decrease in wet biomass was mainly because of phosphate, where as 47% of dry biomass of total zooplankton was positively correlated with conductivity.