Relationships between the physicochemical parameters and zooplankton in Eğirdir Lake (Turkey)

The zooplankton community structure in Egirdir Lake (Isparta-Turkey) was studied monthly throughout an annual cycle (January 2010-December 2010). The zooplankton community was represented by three main groups: Rotifera, Cladocera and Copepoda, respectively comprised 89.62%, 7.78% and 2.60% of the total zooplankton abundance. Egirdir Lake was dominated by the rotifera Polyarthra dolichoptera in September and October, that succeeded by cladocera Bosmina longirostris species during December. Canonical correspondance analysis (CCA) was used to relate species distribution to environmental factors. The variation in the species data was significantly (p < 0.05) related to a set of environmental variables (conductivity, carbonate,  pH, ammonium, organic substances, dissolved oxygen, saturation of dissolved oxygen, chloride and temperature). According to the CCA result, variables were able to explain 81.9% of the total variation suggesting a significant result. The rotifer, Asplanchna priodonta, and the crustaceans, B. longirostris and Nauplius larvae seemed to be affected by environmental gradients.