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Abstract

The paper reported on a metacommunity analysis of zooplankton in two freshwater wetlands having contrasting ecological features for three seasons over a year. The effects of spatial connectedness, habitat fragmentation, environmental changes mediated by seasonal fluctuations and variability in assemblages of aquatic vegetation on the zooplankton community were compared. A total of 116 zooplankton species were recorded from both the study sites. Few zooplankton showed affinity for Site 1, whereas others were unique to Site 2. Sorensen"s similarity index revealed that the two sites were moderately similar with respect to zooplankton composition, but were moderately dissimilar with regard to floral composition. The present study has tested Community Wide Character Displacement (CWCD) hypothesis based on the results which exhibited less similarities in the fragmented local habitats within the same wetland than two major distantly located wetlands in respect of zooplankton species composition. Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and Cluster analysis have revealed that direct connectivity might have played most vital role in shaping community structure especially in case of planktonic organisms, followed by the influence of seasons and macrophytes.

Zooplankton Diversity of a Sub-Tropical Small Urban Wetland of Meghalaya, Northeast India with Remarks on Spatial Variations

“…Rotifera, an important group, contributes to zooplankton density variations at the littoral (r1=0.915, p =0.0002) and semi-limnetic (r2=0.825, p=0.003) stations. The importance of Rotifera concurs with the reports of Khan (1987Khan ( , 2003, Sanjer and Sharma (1995), Jindal and Prajapat (2005), Jyoti et al ( 2009), Patra et al (2011), Sharma (2011a, 2011b, Sharma and Sharma (2011, 2019c) Pandey et al (2013), Deka and Goswami (2015), Halder Mallick and Chakraborty (2015), Malik and Panwar (2016), Sharma and Kumari (2018) and Sharma and Noroh (2020). Higher rotifer abundance during warmer months is affirmed by a positive correlation with water temperature; the latter concurs with the results of Thakur et al (2013), Malik and Panwar (2016), and .…”

“…The latter concurs with the results of Patra et al ( 2011), Thakur et al (2013), and Singh and Sharma (2020) but differ from the inverse correlation indicated by Pandey et al (2013) and Slathia and Dutta (2013). Further, monsoon peaks concur with the reports from Arunachal Pradesh (Saikia et al 2017), Assam (Deka and Goswami 2015), Uttarakhand (Thakur et al 2013), and Myanmar (Twin and Aung 2019) but differ summer peaks listed from wetlands of Bihar (Pandey et al 2013), Kashmir (Slathia and Dutta 2013), Karnataka (Majagi 2014;Anita et al 2019) and from winter peaks known from Himachal Pradesh (Sharma and Kumari 2018), Meghalaya (Sharma and Wanswett 2006), Uttarakhand (Malik and Panwar 2016;Singh and Sharma 2020) and West Bengal (Halder Mallick and Chakraborty 2015;Patra et al 2015). Low and equitable abundance categorizes 'generalist' nature of zooplankton species concurrent with the reports from Himachal Pradesh (Jindal and Prajapat 2005;Jindal and Thakur 2014), NEI (Sharma 1995;Sharma and Lyngskor 2003;Sharma 2011a, 2011b, Sharma and Sharma 2011Sharma and Noroh 2020) and Uttarakhand (Malik and Panwar 2016;Singh and Sharma 2020).…”

“…These environs have attracted relatively more attention since the inception of the Indian limnology and have resulted in the proliferation of 'ad-hoc' and 'routine' reports on zooplankton assemblages due to incomplete species lists, unidentified species, limited sampling, and inadequate data analysis Sharma 2019a, 2019b). The selected Indian studies with variable and limited extant of useful information are from small wetlands of Bihar (Kumar et al 2011;Pandey et al 2013), Jammu & Kashmir (Jyoti et al 2009), Haryana (Tyor et al 2014;Chopra and Jakhar 2016), Karnataka (Majagi 2014), Telangana (Karuthapandi et al 2016), Uttarakhand (Kumar et al 2012) and West Bengal (Datta 2011;Halder Mallick and Chakraborty 2015;Patra et al 2015;Adhikari et al 2017;Saha et al 2017;Midya et al 2018). Amongst other wetlands, some useful studies are from the floodplains of Bihar (Sanjer and Sharma 1995), Kashmir (Khan 1987;Ahangar et al 2012;Slathia and Dutta 2013) and West Bengal (Khan 2002(Khan , 2003Ganesan and Khan 2008), while the notable zooplankton diversity works are restricted to the floodplain wetlands of Assam (Sharma and Hussain 2001;Sharma 2008, 2012;Sharma 2011a;Sharma and Hatimuria 2017;Sharma and Noroh 2020) and Manipur (Sharma 2011b;Sharma and Sharma 2011) states of NEI.…”

“…, and West Bengal(Halder Mallick and Chakraborty 2015;Patra et al 2015;Saha et al 2017;Middya 2017;Midya et al 2018) from India; and elsewhere from Bangladesh(Islam and Chowdhury 2013), Bhutan(Sharma and Bhattarai 2005) and Myanmar(Twin and Aung 2019). Zooplankton richness is notably higher than the reports from the lakes and reservoirs of Himachal(Jindal and Prajapat 2005;Thakur et al 2013;Jindal and Thakur 2014), Karnataka(Hulyal and Kaliwal 2008;Kudari and Kanamadi 2008;Majagi and Vijaykumar 2009;Majagi 2014;Anita et al 2019), Jammu & Kashmir(Khan 1987;Ahangar et al 2012;Slathia and Dutta 2013;Sharma and Sharma 2019), Meghalaya(Sharma 1995;Sharma and Lyngdoh 2004;, Mizoram(Sharma and Pachuau 2013), Telangana(Karuthapandi et al 2016) and Uttarakhand(Sharma and Pant 1985;Mishra et al 2010;Malik and Panwar, 2016;Sharma and Kumari 2018;Singh and Sharma 2020) states of India.…”

Integrating hydrological connectivity and zooplankton composition in Arctic ponds and lakes

“…through their stoichiometric requirements for nutrients. Thus, our results confirm the importance of hydrological connectivity for shaping zooplankton community structure as has been noted at lower latitudes (Gozdziejewska et al, 2016; Mallick & Chakraborty, 2015; Reid et al, 2012). In addition to connectivity, our research also highlights and supports the role of fish predation in shaping zooplankton communities (e.g.…”