Plankton assessment of Masinloc Bay, Zambales [Philippines]

Plankton assessment was conducted in Masinloc Bay to estimate its density, species composition and distribution. Zooplankton was sampled from each of the seven stations selected along the length of the Bay by vertically towing replicate conventional plankton nets of 64 mm mesh from 1 m above bottom to surface two times. Samples were concentrated and preserved in 10% formalin and analyzed in the laboratory. Results showed that a total of 15 taxa were obtained where cyclopoids was the dominant form (45%) followed by calanoids (17%) and copepod nauplii (17%). Zooplankton densities were highest at depth range of 0-3.5 m at station 3 with 104,931 plankters/cu m while the lowest density of 14,006 plankters/cu m was obtained at depth range 0-2 m at station 6. However, species diversity indices computed for all stations showed that station 6 was the most diverse (0.09) while station 3 was the least (0.02)