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

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.