1 Int J Waste Resour, Vol.11 Iss.4 No:1000405 Research Article Fish Mediated Plankton Community Dynamics at Wastewater-Fed Fish Ponds: A Sustainable Bio Resource Management at East Kolkata Wetlands, a Ramsar Site (No. 1208) Abhishek Roy Goswami, Shuvadip Adhikari, Sudin Pal, Subhra Kumar Mukhopadhyay * Department of Ecotoxicology and Ecotechnology Project laboratory, Government College of Engineering and Leather Technology, Salt Lake City, India INTRODUCTION Zooplankton community in freshwater ponds is constituted primarily of rotifers, cladocerans, copepods and ostracods. Zooplankters serve as food for the fish and played a key role in pisciculture operation. Studies highlighting zooplankton-fish dynamics in freshwater ecosystems are undertaken around the globe. The present study is conducted at East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW), a peri-urban natural wetland system, famous for indigenous wastewater-fed pisciculture and contribute a major share of fish production for the Kolkata city. Raw wastewater used in 286 pisciculture ponds, covering nearly 4728 ha water spread area, is sourced from the Storm Water Flow (SWF) and Dry Weather Flow (DWF) channels which transport municipal and industrial wastewaters of Kolkata city traversing through a web of canals inside 12500 ha EKW areas, now designated as Ramsar site (No.1208). Wastewater-fed fishponds of these wetland areas sustainably produce nearly 10915 metric tons of fish annually. Diversity of zooplankton and their relative abundance at EKW is documented. The relationships between the plankton community and abiotic factors of sewage-fed fishery ponds with a focus on the conceptual model of carbon flow in the EKW fish ponds. It is noted the importance of allochthonous input of nutrients on zooplankton community dynamics [1]. Construct a simulation model of phosphorus dynamics in EKW and point out that the allochthonous input of phosphorus is dominant over autochthonous input and control the system dynamics at the concerned areas. The present study focus on the zooplankton community dynamics influenced by phytoplankton and fish reared in different fish culture ponds (nursery pond, rearing pond and grow-out pond) nurturing fish of different maturity-class to emphasize on the operational pathways that translate ‘phosphorus dynamics’ in ‘system dynamics’ as stated by the end. The complexity within the zooplanktonic communities generally exists from the presence of fish that might potentially exert Correspondence to: Subhra Kumar Mukhopadhyay, Department of Ecotoxicology and Ecotechnology Project laboratory, Government College of Engineering and Leather Technology, Salt Lake City, India, Tel: +919433333972; E-mail: subhro22@gmail.com Received: February 26, 2021; Accepted: March 25, 2021; Published: April 03, 2021 Citation: Mukhopadhyay SK, Goswami AR, Adhikari S, Pal S (2021) Fish Mediated Plankton Community Dynamics at Wastewater-Fed Fish Ponds: A Sustainable Bio Resource Management at East Kolkata Wetlands, a Ramsar Site (No. 1208). Int J Waste Resour.11:405. Copyright: © 2021 Goswami AR , et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. ABSTRACT Ingenious artisans sustainably converted wastes into wealth using wastewater-fed fish ponds at East Kolkata Wetlands (a Ramsar Site No. 1208) by regulating wastewater inflow and selection of fish of different maturity class. A top-down and bottom-up control exerted by phytoplankton and fish population respectively influenced the zooplankton community structure. The nutritional factors together with fish population significantly influenced the phytoplankton and zooplankton groups. Phytoplankters in nutrient rich wastewater influenced the zooplankton community structure by the way of bottom-up control. Larger fish differently influenced the zooplankton community structure compared to that of smaller ones as these fish with different gape sizes preferred different sizes of prey. Larger phytoplanktivore zooplankters were under top-down control as they were preferred by the fish with larger gapesizes. Keywords: East Kolkata wetlands; Urban-rural fringe; Plankton; Trophic control; Wastewater-fed fishpond; Ecologically subsidized; Sustainable pisciculture International Journal of Waste Resources