Seasonal Variation of Zooplankton Community Structure and Species Composition in the Sanya Bay

In 2005, the species composition, dominant species, community structure, and seasonal variations of abundance and biomass of the zooplankton in Sanya Bay were analyzed. A total 125 species of the zooplankton and 16 species of the planktonic larva were identified. Chaetognatha larva and Zoea larva were two dominant groups appearing in all four seasons. The zooplankton in Sanya Bay could be divided into three ecological groups below according to their ecological habits and distribution characters, i. e., estuarine group, warm water nearshore group and widely-distributed warm water pelagic group. The annual average abundance of zooplankton was 95.91 ind · m-3, and the annual average biomass of zooplankton was 69.22 mg · m-3. The abundance and biomass of zooplankton were higher in summer and autumn than those in winter and spring. The dimensional variation of zooplankton abundance was in agreement with that of phytoplankton density in winter.