Community structure of crusteacean Zooplankton in the River Nile at Esna Barrages, Upper Egypt.

H. Obuid-Allah, Ahmad; S. Moustafa, Ahmed; A. Mohammad, Wafaa; H. M. Hussien, El-Amier; M. Gaber, Azza

doi:10.21608/ejabf.2019.63538

Community structure of crusteacean Zooplankton in the River Nile at Esna Barrages, Upper Egypt.

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

10.21608/ejabf.2019.63538

Abstract

Zooplanktons are major components in the trophic dynamics of freshwater ecosystems. The present study was carried out on the River Nile at Esna barrages, Upper Egypt which located between 25°19'03.5"N and 32°33'19.5"E. Samples were collected from six sites up and down stream of the barrage during one year extended from October 2018 till September 2019. The study revealed that the total number of zooplankton community collected was (36367 indv/m³). The collected zooplankton could be assigned to three different groups (Cladocera, Copepoda, and Ostracoda) which included 37 species belonging to 27 genera that fall in 10 families. The highest value of total abundance of zooplankton was recorded during winter and the lowest value was recorded during summer. The total density of zooplankton community was recorded at site 1 which is located upstream (9396 indv/m³), while the lowest value was recorded at site 4 (downstream) (4186 indv/m³). Cladocera was the dominant group; it represented about 87.5% of the total density followed by Copepoda and Ostracoda. Taxa richness reached the highest peak value (29 taxa) at upstream, while the highest peak value was (25 taxa) at downstream. Shannon- wiener’s diversity index ranged between (2.06) and (2.33) at upstream while it ranged between (1.95) and (2.45) at downstream.

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