Seasonal succession of crustacean zooplankton in Wular Lake of the Kashmir Himalaya

Abstract

The present study was undertaken on Wular Lake, a Ramsar Site in Kashmir Himalaya, to study the seasonal succession of crustacean zooplankton from September 2010 to August 2011. A total of 42 crustacean taxa belonging to Cladocera (23), Copepoda (16) and Ostracoda (3) were identified at five different sampling sites. Among the crustaceans, Cladocera was numerically the most dominant group at sites III, IV and V, followed by Copepoda at sites I and II. On an average basis total crustacean density ranged from 416 ind./l in winter to 1567.6 ind./l in summer. On the basis of Sorensen’s similarity index, study sites IV and V showed close similarity (88.13%).

Keywords

• Succession
• Crustacea
• density
• Wular Lake
• Kashmir Himalaya
• India