| Title |
Differences in Zooplankton Community Structure between Surface Water and Vertical Integrated Water in Middle and Down Stream of Nakdong River |
| Authors |
김민석 ( Min-seok Kim ) ; 박혜경 ( Hae-kyung Park ) |
| DOI |
https://doi.org/10.15681/KSWE.2023.39.3.215 |
| Keywords |
Cladocera; Copepoda; Nakdong River; Vertical haul method; Zooplankton |
| Abstract |
Zooplankton are primary consumers in the food web connecting primary producers and predators such as small fish, playing an important role in energy transfer in aquatic ecosystems. Therefore, it is essential to understand the zooplankton community structure in material cycle and energy flow in aquatic ecosystems. Zooplankton in large rivers with a low flow rate would distribute vertically as in lakes. In this study, we collected zooplankton by surface water filtration and vertical haul method with 64 μm-mesh plankton net at three stations (ND-1, ND-2, ND-3) in Nakdong River fortnightly from June 2018 to December 2019. Species composition and individual densities were analyzed. All three stations showed differences in relative abundance of zooplankton groups between surface water and vertical integrated water, with the largest difference shown in the deepest station, ND-2. In vertically integrated water at ND-2, the relative abundance of rotifera was low by a maximum of 25% and that of cladocera was high by a maximum of 22% compared to surface water samples. These results indicate that surface water filtration method is not enough to represent the community structure of zooplankton compared to the vertical haul method in large rivers. |