Diversity of Zooplankton in Adimalathura Estuary, Southwest coast of India

Zooplankton is considered as the most important grazers of the phytoplankton. They are generally able to maintain themselves in a preferred depth, or in some cases to perform vertical migration from a near surface position at night and to deeper water in the day time Zooplankton plays an important role to study the faunal bio-diversity of aquatic ecosystems. It is occurrence and distribution influences the fishery potentials. The fishes mostly breed in areas where the planktonic organisms are plenty so that their young ones could get sufficient food for survival and growth. The zooplankton composition during the study period includes the members of Foraminifera, Rotatoria, Calanoida, Cyclopoida, Harpacticoidea, Doliolida, Appendicularia, Decapoda, Sagittoida, Amphipoda, Coelentrata, Pteropoda, Cladocera and larval forms. Totally 100 zooplankton were recorded. Species richness, evenness were calculated. Zooplankton population density varied from 19,986 to 21,8100 organisms/l.