Biodiversity and community structure of zooplankton in the Sub-basin of Rio Poxim, Sergipe, Brazil

  • Ana Paula Sousa Pereira Universidade Federal de Sergipe
  • Anderson Nascimento do Vasco Universidade Federal de Sergipe
  • Fábio Brandão Britto Universidade Federal de Sergipe
  • Arisvaldo Vieira Méllo Júnior Universidade de São Paulo
  • Eliane Maria de Souza Nogueira Universidade do Estado da Bahia
Keywords: Zooplankton community, diversity, bioindicator

Abstract

The zooplankton of aquatic environments is composed mostly of protozoans, rotifers, cladocerans and copepods, which play an important role in the food chain, transferring mass and energy from primary producers to higher trophic levels. This work was prepared with the objective of contributing to the knowledge of zooplankton biodiversity that occurs in the Sub-basin of Rio Poxim. Water samples were taken at monthly intervals at four sampling stations located along the sub-basin in the period August 2009 to July 2010. To obtain the zooplankton community, 100 L of water were filtered on nylon net with an aperture of 50 mm. Were identified 72 taxa distributed in the following taxonomic categories Rotifera, Protozoa, Porifera, Nematoda, Anellida, Cladocera, Copepoda, Ostracoda, Isopoda and Insecta. In terms of species richness, the phylum Rotifera followed by the Protoctista were the most relevant with forty and fifteen taxa, respectively. The most representative taxa in numerical terms were Arcella vulgaris, Notholca sp. Rotary sp. and nematodes. Regarding the community diversity index, the community was characterized as low diversity, but the taxa were distributed evenly in all monitoring points.

Author Biographies

Ana Paula Sousa Pereira, Universidade Federal de Sergipe
Biológa formada pela Universidade do Estado da Bahia -UNEB e Mestranda em Agroecossistemas pela Universidade Federal de Sergipe-UFS. Departamento de Engenharia Agronômica-DEA.
Anderson Nascimento do Vasco, Universidade Federal de Sergipe
Doutorando em Desenvolvimento em Meio Ambiente pela UFS.
Fábio Brandão Britto, Universidade Federal de Sergipe
Professor do Instituto Federal de Sergipe-IFS.
Arisvaldo Vieira Méllo Júnior, Universidade de São Paulo
Professor do Departamento de Engenharia hidraúlica da USP.
Eliane Maria de Souza Nogueira, Universidade do Estado da Bahia
Professora do Departamento de Educação, UNEB-campus VIII.
Published
22/08/2011
Section
Papers