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Romanian Journal of Biology - Zoology
ROMANIAN ACADEMY |
DIVERSITY AND SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF ZOOPLANKTON COMMUNITIES OF DANUBE DELTA LAKES
LARISA FLORESCU*, LAURA PARPALĂ*, IOANA ENACHE* **, ALINA DUMITRACHE* **, MIRELA MOLDOVEANU*
Abstract:
The high diversity of aquatic communities offers stability and resilience to the ecosystems. The zooplankton has a particularly important role in aquatic ecosystems, by up-taking the organic matter synthetized by phytoplankton and transferring it to higher consumer orders, by grazing and facilitating bacterial decomposition processes, by contributing to the enrichment with nutrients of the water and benthic layers, etc. Our study was focused on assessing zooplankton diversity, spatial distribution and particularities in 21 selected lakes located in three main lake complexes of the Danube Delta. The structural parameters with key role for zooplankton diversity were assessed by linear regressions. The most representative taxonomic groups were Rotifera and Copepoda, the highest number of species and abundance being recorded in Matiţa-Merhei lake complex (164 species, 343 ind. L-1). In the same complex, the Shannon index was positively correlated with species richness and evenness. In the Roşu-Puiu complex, a negative correlation between evenness and abundance was found as a result of the high number of accidental species; also, a positive correlation between evenness and Shannon index was recorded. The highest diversity was recorded in Isac-Gorgova lake complex, characterized by a positive relationship between abundance and the number of species and between Shannon index and evenness. The correlations with phytoplankton groups indicated the importance of Chlorophyceae and Cyanobacteria for the development of rotifers and copepods. The influence of environmental variables on zooplankton diversity was further tested to explain the dissimilarities between the lake complexes.
Citation:
LARISA FLORESCU*, LAURA PARPALĂ*, IOANA ENACHE* **, ALINA DUMITRACHE* **, MIRELA MOLDOVEANU*, 2019. DIVERSITY AND SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF ZOOPLANKTON COMMUNITIES OF DANUBE DELTA LAKES, Romanian Journal of Biology - Zoology, 64(1-2): 17–31.
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