Characteristics of Zooplankton Community and Its Relation to Environmental Factors in Lake Wuhu in Spring and Autumn
春、秋季武湖浮游动物群落特征及其与环境因子的关系

Investigations of zooplankton were carried out during four surveys of Lake Wuhu in spring (May) and autumn (November) of 2007 and 2008. Totally, 133 species of zooplankton including 61 species of protozoa, 63 species of rotifers, 6 species of cladocerans, and 3 species of copepods were found. The number of zooplankton species of spring (86 and 85) were higher than autumn (73 and 72). The density of zooplankton was the highest in spring of 2007 (49605 ind./L); autumn of 2007, spring and autumn of 2008 had low density of zooplankton, and the abundance of protozoa and rotifer were on predominance. The zooplankton community were analyzed in relation to water quality parameters by canonical correspondence analysis (CCA). Temperature, transparency and the concentrations of Chl a, TP, TN, COD and DO were strongly correlated with the zooplankton community. The parameters that demonstrated a strong correlation to the zooplankton community differed among seasons, suggesting that the seasonal variations of zooplankton community structure was related closely to the water trophic status.