Abstract
The Vishwamitri is one of the major rivers of central Gujarat and on its banks evolved the picturesque city of Vadodara. Like any other lotic ecosystem of the modern era, the Vishwamitri too is used as a dumping ground for domestic and industrial wastes. Nevertheless, the river inhabits a sizable population of microfauna and the notable among them is rotifer. The current study was aimed at understanding the factors influencing the structure and dynamics of rotifer community in the river Vishwamitri. Seasonal sampling was done during 2002–2004 from five selected sampling stations that were representing upstream, midstream, and downstream of Vishwamitri. These stations, therefore, varied in their pollution loads. The taxonomic analysis of rotifers revealed the presence of 59 species, belonging to 24 genera and 17 families. The Lecanidae family had the maximum representation with 18 species followed by Brachionidae with 15 species. However, species belonging to Brachionus genus are found as the predominant group, among rotifers, in Vishwamitri. Further, a definite periodicity in the rotifer community was noticed on a temporal scale at all the stations. The species diversity was observed to be highest during the post-monsoon, whereas the least diversity was observed during winter. Analysis for water chemistry followed by suitable statistical analysis revealed that the rotifer community responded differently to various physicochemical cues. Dissolved oxygen, normally a major rate-limiting parameter for aquatic life, was found to have no statistically significant influence in regulating rotifer diversity. The study further revealed that elevated levels of suspended solids and total reactive phosphate have a negative influence on the rotifer diversity. Pearson’s correlation between rotifer diversity and temperature as well as pH revealed that rotifers thrive well in warm alkaline part of the river. In addition nitrate nitrogen and chlorophyll-a levels had a significant positive influence on rotifer community composition. To sum it up in the current study, we observed that water chemistry does influence rotifer community in Vishwamitri River and the prominent among the chemical parameters that influence the rotifer community are pH and chlorophyll-a. The right blend of these abiotic factors together with the presence of aquatic macrophytes makes the upstream sampling stations of Vishwamitri richer in terms of rotifer diversity as compared to their more polluted downstream stations.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
APHA, AWWA, WEF (1998) Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater. American Public Health Association, Washington, DC
Archibald M (1972) Diversity in some South African diatom associations and its relation to water quality. Water Res 6:1229–1238
Arora HC (1966) Studies on Indian Rotifera – Part III. On Brachionus calyciflorous and some varieties of the species. J Zool Soc India 16:1–6
Arora J, Mehra NK (2003) Seasonal dynamics of rotifers in relation to physical and chemical conditions of the river Yamuna (Delhi). India Hydrobiol 491:101–109
Banerjea S, Motwani MP (1960) Some observations on pollution of the Suvaon stream by the effluents of a sugar factory, Balrampur (UP). Ind J Fish 7:107–128
Berzins B, Pejler B (1987) Rotifer occurrence in relation to pH. Hydrobiologia 147:107–116
Berzins B, Pejler B (1989) Rotifer occurrence in relation to temperature. Hydrobiology 175:223–231
Bhargava DS (1985) Water quality variation and control technology of Yamuna river. Environ Pollut 37(series B):355–376
Bielanska-Grajner I (2001) The psammic rotifer structure in three Lobelian Polish lakes differing in pH. Hydrobiology 446/447:149–153
Brett MT (1989) Zooplankton communities and acidification process (a review). Wat Air Soil Pollut 44:387–414
Burgis MJ (1974) Revised estimates for the biomass and production of zooplankton in lake George, Uganda. Freshw Biol 4:535–541
Cecchine G, Snell TW (1999) Toxicant exposure increases threshold food levels in freshwater rotifer populations. Environ Toxicol 14:523–530
Chacko PI, Rajagopal A (1962) Hydrobiology and fisheries of the Ennore river near Madras from April 1960 to March 1961. Madras J Fish 1:102–104
Cottenie K, Nuytten N, Michels E, Meester LD (2001) Zooplankton community structure and environmental conditions in a set of interconnected ponds. Hydrobiology 442:339–350
De Ridder M (1984) A review of rotifer fauna of Sudan. Hydrobiology 110:1113–1130
Dean RB, Lund E (1981) Water reuse: problems and solutions. Academic, London
den Berg V, Coops MSH, Noordhius R, Van Schie J, Simons J (1997) Macro invertebrate communities in relation to submerged vegetation in two Chara-dominated lakes. Hydrobiology 342/343:143–150
Deneke R (2000) Review of rotifers and crustaceans in highly acidic environments of pH values 3. Hydrobiology 433:167–172
Desai GH, Clarke AB (1923) Gazette of Baroda state, vol 1. General Information, Bombay
Dhanapathi MVSS (1997) Variations in some rotifers of the family Brachionidae. J Aquat Biol 12:35–38
Dhanapathi MVSS (2000) Taxonomic notes on the rotifers from India (1889–2000). Indian Association of Aquatic Biologists, Hyderabad
Dhuru S, Suresh B, Pilo B (2003) Additions to the rotifer fauna of Gujarat. J Aqua Biol 18(1):35–39
Dumont HJ (1983) Biogeography of rotifers. Hydrobiology 104:19–30
Dumont HJ, Segers H (1996) Estimating lacustrine zooplankton species richness and complementarity. Hydrobiology 341:125–132
Duncan AA, Gulati RD (1981) Parakrama Samudra (Sri Lanka) project, a study of a tropical lake ecosystem. III. Composition, density and distribution of the zooplankton in 1979. Verh Int Ver Limnol 21:1007–1014
Edmondson WT (1944) Ecological studies of the sessile Rotatoria. Part I. Factors affecting distribution. Ecol Monogr 14:31–66
Egborge ABM (1981) The composition, seasonal variation and distribution of zooplankton in Lake Asejire, Nigeria. Rev Zool Afr 95(1):136–180
Fernando CH (1980) The species and size composition of tropical freshwater zooplankton with special reference to the Oriental region (South East Asia). Int Revue Ges Hydrobiol 65:411–426
Fernando CH, Rajapaksa R (1983) Some remarks on long-term and seasonal changes in the zooplankton of Parakrama Samudra. In: Schiemer F (ed) Limnology of Parakrama Samudra – Sri Lanka. Dr. W. Junk, Hague
Fulton RS, Pearl HS (1987) Toxic and inhibitory effects of the blue green alga Microcystis aeruginosa on herbivorous zooplankton. J Plankton Res 9:837–856
Fussmann G (1996) The importance of crustacean zooplankton in structuring rotifer and phytoplankton communities: an enclosure study. J Plankton Res 10:1897–1915
Galkovskaja GA (1987) Planktonic rotifers and temperature. Hydrobiology 147:307–317
Gannon JE, Stemberger RS (1978) Zooplankton especially crustaceans and rotifers as indicators of water quality. Trans Am Micros Soc 77:16–35
George MG (1961) Observations on the rotifers from shallow ponds in Delhi. Curr Sci 30:268–269
Gilbert JJ (1985) Competition between rotifers and Daphnia. Ecology 66:1943–1950
Green J (1956) Growth, size and reproduction in Daphnia (Crustacea: Cladocera). Proc Zool Soc Lond 126:173–204
Green J (1960) Zooplankton of river Sokoto. The rotifers. Proc Zool Soc Lond 135:491–523
Green J (2001) Variability and instability of planktonic rotifer associations in Lesetho, Southern Africa. Hydrobiology 446/447:187–194
Gulati RD, Ooms-Wilms AL, Van Tongeren FR, Postema G, Siewetsen K (1992) The dynamics and role of limnetic zooplankton in the Loosdrecht (The Netherlands). Hydrobiology 233:69–86
Haque N, Khan AA, Fatima M, Barbhuyan SI (1988) Impact of some ecological parameters on rotifer population in a tropical perennial pond. Environ Ecol 6:998–1001
Hart RC (1987) Population dynamics and production of five crustaceans zooplankton in subtropical reservoir during years of contrasting turbidity. Freshw Biol 18:287–318
Hart RC (1990) Zooplankton distribution in relation to turbidity and related environmental gradient in a large subtropical reservoir: patterns and implications. Freshw Biol 24:241–263
Hebert PDN (1978) The population biology of Daphnia (Crustaceae: Daphnidae). Biol Rev 53:387–426
Herzig A (1987) The analysis of planktonic rotifer populations: a plea for long term investigations. Hydrobiology 147:163–180
Hofmann W (1977) The influence of abiotic environmental factors on population dynamics in planktonic rotifers. Arch Hydrobiol Beih Ergebn Limnol 8:77–83
Hynes HBN (1978) The ecology of running waters. Liverpool University Press, Liverpool
Kaushik S, Saksena DN (1995) Trophic status and rotifer fauna of certain water bodies in central India. J Environ Biol 16:283–291
Kirk KL, Gilbert JJ (1990) Suspended clay and population dynamics of planktonic rotifers and cladocerans. Ecology 71:1741–1755
Kuczyriska-Kippen N (2007) Habitat choice in rotifer communities of three shallow lakes: impacts of macrophyte substratum and season. Hydrobiology 593(1):27–37
Kulshreshtra SK, Adholia UN, Bhatnagar A, Khan AA, Saxena M, Bhagail M (1989) Studies on the pollution in river Kshipra: zooplankton in relation to water quality. Int J Ecol Environ Sci 15:27–36
Lewis WM Jr (1979) Zooplankton community analysis: studies on a tropical stream. Springer, New York/Berlin
Lougheed VL, Crosbie B, Chow-Fraser P (1998) Predictions on the effect of carp exclusion on water quality, zooplankton and submergent macrophytes in a Great Lakes wetland. Can J Fish Aquat Sci 55(5):1189–1197
Ludwig JA, Reynolds JE (1988) Diversity indices in statistical ecology. Wiley, New York
Marneffe Y, Comblin S, Thome J (1998) Ecological water quality assessment of the Butgenbach lake (Belgium) and its impact on the river Warche using rotifers as bioindicators. Hydrobiology 387/388:459–467
McCabe GD, O’ Brien WJ (1983) The effects of suspended silt on feeding and reproduction of Daphnia pulex. Am Midl Nat 110:324–337
Mengestou S, Green J, Fernando CH (1991) Species composition, distribution and seasonal dynamics of Rotifera in a Rift Valley lake in Ethiopia (Lake Awasa). Hydrobiology 209:203–214
Michael RG (1968) Studies on the zooplankton of a tropical fish pond, India. Hydrobiology 32:47–68
Mishra SR, Saksena DN (1998) Rotifers and their seasonal variation in a sewage collecting Morar (Kalpi) river, Gwalior, India. J Environ Biol 19:363–374
Mitra AK (1982) Chemical characteristics of surface water at selected gauging stations in the river Godavari, Krishna and Tungabhadra. Ind J Environ Health 24:165–179
Nayar CKG (1964) Morphometric studies on the rotifer, Brachionus calyciflorous Pallas. Curr Sci 33:469–470
Nayar CKG (1965) Cyclomorphosis of B. calyciflorus. Hydrobiology 25:538–544
Pejler B (1957) Taxonomical and ecological studies on planktonic Rotatoria from northern Swedish Lapland. K. svenska Vetensk Akad Handl., Ser. 4, bd 6 no 68 pp
Pejler B (1977) On the global distribution of family Brachionidae (Rotatoria). Arch Hydrobiol (Suppl) 53:255–306
Pennak WR (1955) Comparative limnology of eight Colorado mountain lakes, University of Colorado studies, series of biology. University of Colorado Press, Boulder, 255 pp
Persuad AD, Williamson CE (2005) Ultraviolet and temperature effects on planktonic rotifers and crustaceans in northern temperature lakes. Freshw Biol 50(3):467–476
Plath K, Boersma M (2001) Mineral limitation of zooplankton: stoichiometric constraints and optima foraging. Ecology 82:1260–1269
Pollard AI, Gonzalez MJ, Vanni MJ, Headworth JL (1998) Effects of turbidity and biotic factors on the rotifer community in a Ohio reservoir. Hydrobiology 387/388:215–223
Porter KG, Orcutt JD (1980) Nutritional adequacy, manageability and toxicity as factors that determine the food quality of green and blue green algae for Daphnia. In: Kerfoot WC (ed) Evolution and ecology of zooplankton communities. University Press of New England, Hanover, pp 268–281
Prabhavathy G, Sreenivasan A (1977) Ecology of warm freshwater zooplankton of Tamil Nadu. In: Proceedings of the symposium on warm water zooplankton, Goa special publication. NIO, Goa, pp 319–329
Robinson AH, Robinson PK (1971) Robinson. seasonal distribution of zooplankton in northern basin of Lake Chad. J Zool (Lond) 163:25–61
Ruttner-Kolisko A (1975) The influence of fluctuating temperature on plankton rotifers. A graphical model based on life data of Hexarthra fennica from Neusiedlersee, Austria. Symp Biol Hung 15:197–204
Sampath V, Sreenivasan A, Ananthanarayanan R (1979) Rotifers as biological indicators of water quality in Cauvery river. Proc Symp Environ Biol 441–452
Sarma SSS, Osnaya-Espinosa LR, Aguilar-Acosta CR, Nandini S (2011) Seasonal variations in zooplankton abundances in the Iturbide reservoir (Isidro Fabela, State of Mexico, Mexico). J Environ Biol 32:473–480
Sawyer CN, McCarty PL, Parkin GF (1994) Chemistry of environmental engineering. McGraw – Hill International Education, New York, p 658
Segers H, Dumont HJ (1995) 102+ rotifer species (Rotifera: Monogononta) in Broa Reservoir (S.P. Brasil) on 26 August 1994, with a description of three new species. Hydrobiology 316:183–197
Skadowsky SN (1923) Hydrophysiologische und hydrobiologische Beobachtungen uber die Bedeutung der Reaktion des Mediums fur die Susswasserorganismen. Ver Int Ver Limnol 1:341–358
Sladecek V (1983) Rotifers as bioindicators of water quality. Hydrobiology 100:169–201
Somashekar RK (1988) Ecological studies on the two major rivers of Karnataka. In: Trivedy RK (ed) Ecology and pollution of Indian rivers. Ashish Publishing House, New Delhi
Sommer U, Gliwicz WL, Duncan A (1986) The PEG-model of seasonal succession of planktonic events in fresh waters. Arch Hydrobiol 106:433–471
Steinberg AJ, Ejsmont-Karabin J, Muirhead JR, Harvey CT, MacIssac HJ (2009) Consistent, long-term change in rotifer community composition across four Polish lakes. Hydrobiology 624:107–114
Subramanian V, Biksham G, Rames R (1987) Environmental geology of peninsular river basins of India. J Geol Soc Ind 30:393–401
Taylor BE, Mahoney DL (1988) Extinction and recolonization: processes regulating zooplankton dynamics in a cooling reservoir. Verh Int Ver Limnol 23:1536–1541
Tebutt THY (1992) Principles of water quality control, 4th edn. Pergamon Press, Oxford
Telesh IV (1995) Rotifer assemblages in the Neva Bay, Russia: principles of formation, present state and perspectives. Hydrobiology 313/314:57–62
Threlkeld ST (1979) The midsummer dynamics of two Daphnia species in Wintergreen lake, Michigan. Ecology 60:165–179
Threlkeld ST (1986) Resource mediated demographic variation during the midsummer succession of a cladoceran community. Freshw Biol 16:673–683
Threlkeld ST (1987) Daphnia population fluctuations: patterns and mechanisms. In: Peters RH, de Bernardi R (eds) Daphnia. Mem Ist Ital Idrobiol 45:367–388
Trivedi RK, Goel PK (1986) Chemical and biological methods for water pollution studies. Environmental Publications, Karad
Trommer G, Pondaven P, Siccha M, Stibor H (2012) Zooplankton-mediated nutrient limitation patterns in marine phytoplankton: an experimental approach with natural communities. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 449:83–94
Venkateswarlu V (1986) Ecological studies on the rivers of Andhra Pradesh with special reference to water quality and pollution. Proc Ind Sci Acad 96:495–508
Venkateswarlu T, Jayanti TV (1968) Hydrobiological studies of the river Sabarmati to evaluate water quality. Hydrobiology 31:442–448
Verma SR, Sharma P, Tyagi A, Rani S, Gupta AK, Dalela RC (1984) Pollution and saprobic status of eastern Kali nadi. Limnol (Berlin) 15:69–133
Webster KE, Peters RH (1978) Some size dependent inhibitions of larger cladoceran filterers in filamentous suspensions. Limnol Oceanogr 23:1238–1245
Wesenberg-Lund C (1908) Plankton investigations of the Danish lakes. Gyldendalske Boghandel, Copenhagen
Wesenberg-Lund C (1930) Contributions to the biology of Rotifera. Part II. The periodicity and sexual periods. Kgl Danske Vidensk Slesk Skifter Naturv Mathem 2:1–230
Wiszniewski J (1936) Notes sur le psammon III. Deux tourbieres aux environs de Varsovie. Arch Hydrobiol 10:173–187
Wolfinbarger WC (1999) Influences of biotic and abiotic actors on seasonal succession of zooplankton in Hugo Reservoir, Oklahoma, USA. Hydrobiology 400:13–31
Yin XW, Nui CJ (2008) Effect of pH on survival, reproduction, egg viability and growth rate of five closely related rotifer species. Aquat Ecol 42(4):607–616
Yoshinaga T, Atsushi H, Tsukamoto K (2001) Why do rotifer populations present a typical sigmoid curve? Hydrobiology 446/447:99–105
Zhou S, Huang X, Cai Q (2007) Vertical distribution and migration of planktonic rotifers in Xiangxi Bay of the three Gorgers reservoir. China J Freshw Ecol 22(3):441–449
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer India
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Dhuru, S., Patankar, P., Desai, I., Suresh, B. (2015). Structure and Dynamics of Rotifer Community in a Lotic Ecosystem. In: Rawat, M., Dookia, S., Sivaperuman, C. (eds) Aquatic Ecosystem: Biodiversity, Ecology and Conservation. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2178-4_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2178-4_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New Delhi
Print ISBN: 978-81-322-2177-7
Online ISBN: 978-81-322-2178-4
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)