Turkish Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
2015, Vol 15, Num, 3 (Pages: 661-675)
Does Intra-Site Connectivity Influence the Dynamics of Zooplankton Metacommunity in Freshwater Habitats?
Priyanka Halder Mallick 1 ,Susanta Kumar Chakraborty 1
1 Vidyasagar University, Department of Zoology, Midnapore, West Bengal, India
DOI :
10.4194/1303-2712-v15_3_11
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The paper reported on a metacommunity analysis of zooplankton in two freshwater wetlands having contrasting
ecological features for three seasons over a year. The effects of spatial connectedness, habitat fragmentation, environmental
changes mediated by seasonal fluctuations and variability in assemblages of aquatic vegetation on the zooplankton community
were compared. A total of 116 zooplankton species were recorded from both the study sites. Few zooplankton showed affinity
for Site 1, whereas others were unique to Site 2. Sorensen’s similarity index revealed that the two sites were moderately
similar with respect to zooplankton composition, but were moderately dissimilar with regard to floral composition. The
present study has tested Community Wide Character Displacement (CWCD) hypothesis based on the results which exhibited
less similarities in the fragmented local habitats within the same wetland than two major distantly located wetlands in respect
of zooplankton species composition. Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and Cluster analysis have revealed that direct
connectivity might have played most vital role in shaping community structure especially in case of planktonic organisms,
followed by the influence of seasons and macrophytes.
Keywords :
Zooplankton diversity, macrophytes, community structure, fragmentation, wetlands, Midnapore