Ecological study of zooplankton in Kan River

This study focused on identification of zooplankton and relationship between biotic and abiotic parameters at three stations in Kan river during 2014. This study identified 26 zooplankton taxa, comprised of Arthropoda (5 genus), Protozoa (6 genus), Rotatoria (11 genus), Nematoda (1 genus) Tardigrada (1 genus), Dipter (1 genus) and Annelida (1 genu). The Rotatoria and Protozoa abundance were dominated with means of 19 ± 18 and 11 ± 10 ind.l-1 respectively in Kan River. The annual average zooplankton abundance was measured as 34± 26 ind.l-1. PCA analysis showed that Rotatoria ndProtozoa with high components loading had the lowest variance and the highest abundance. Based on CCA, there was no correlation between abundance of zooplankton groups and abiotic parameters. The findings showed that the biodiversity index of plankton was between 1.8 and 2 for Kan River and the river is located in the mesotrophic category. There is also an increased possibility of eutrophication in Kan River, in future.