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Zooplankton Distribution in Coastal Water off Gopalpur, North-Western Bay of Bengal

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Abstract

An interannual study on zooplankton abundance, biomass, and species composition was carried out during different seasons in two local coastal water types off Gopalpur, north-western Bay of Bengal. Although, Type-1 was observed with higher zooplankton abundance in comparison to Type-2, pattern of variation followed similar seasonal trends in both water types during individual years. Well pronounced seasonality was observed in zooplankton distribution. Zooplankton community was composed of 217 holoplankton and 22 meroplankton. The holoplankton community was predominated by copepod in terms of species diversity and abundance followed by hydrozoa, tintinnida, malacostraca, gastropoda, chaetognatha and chordata. The meroplankton were represented by larval forms viz. bivalve veliger, brachyuran zoea larvae, caridean larvae, copepod nauplii, fish egg and gastropod veliger. Dominance of copepod species viz. Acrocalanus longicornis, Paracalanus aculeatus and Paracalanus parvus were observed frequently in both water types. The species richness was higher in Type-1 in comparison to Type-2 during both the years. Salinity regimes and availability of phytoplankton prey influenced the distribution and species composition of zooplankton assemblage.

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Acknowledgements

The present study was supported by Indian National Center for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) sponsored SATellite Coastal and Oceanographic Research (SATCORE) project to Berhampur University, Odisha. The authors are thankful to Dr. Biraja Kumar Sahu, CSIR-IMMT, for helping in statistical analyses. One of the authors (SS) extends thanks to DST-SERB (Govt. of India) for awarding National Post Doctoral Fellowship (No. PDF/2016/002087). This is INCOIS contribution No. 310.

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  1. Indian National Center for Ocean Information Services, Hyderabad, 500090, India

    S. K. Baliarsingh, Suchismita Srichandan, Aneesh A. Lotliker & T. Srinivasa Kumar

  2. Department of Marine Sciences, Berhampur University, Odisha, 760007, India

    K. C. Sahu

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  1. S. K. Baliarsingh
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Baliarsingh, S.K., Srichandan, S., Lotliker, A.A. et al. Zooplankton Distribution in Coastal Water off Gopalpur, North-Western Bay of Bengal. J. Ocean Univ. China 17, 879–889 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-018-3414-0

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