www.iaset.us editor@iaset.us COMPOSITION, ABUNDANCE AND DIVERSITY OF ZOOPLANKTON POPULATION FROM THREE DIFFERENT WETLANDS FROM BARAK VALLEY, ASSAM PAPIA DAS & DEVASHISH KAR Department of Life Science and Bio-informatics, Assam University, Silchar, Cachar, Assam, India ABSTRACT The zooplanktonic composition and its community structure in three selected wetlands of Barak valley were investigated for a period of one year sampling every month. The zooplankton fauna comprised of 36 species belonging to three group viz., rotifera, cladocera and copepoda. The relative abundance of rotifera was high in two studied areas (site 2 and site 3) 48.05% and 43.80% respectively. The zooplankton species richness indices were high in site 2 than the other observed study areas. The detailed aspect of composition, abundance and diversity trend of zooplankton fauna is discussed herein. KEYWORDS: Abundance, Community Structure, Diversity, Zooplankton INTRODUCTION Zooplankton community is cosmopolitan in nature. It is economically and ecologically vital group of aquatic organisms as they inhabit all freshwater habitats of the world (Kar, 2013). These spices are not only useful as bio indicators, but are also helpful for ameliorating polluted waters. Several studies indicated that these enhanced the performance of fish larvae because it contains essential source of protein, amino acids, lipids, fatty acids and enzymes desirable for aquatic organisms for effective growth and survival (Kibria et al., 1997; Ovie et al., 1993; Adeyemo et al., 1994).Zooplankton is so as to occupy a wide range of habitats. A direct method for the evaluation of the potentiality of an aquatic biotope is the assessment of the rate of its primary production, where it begins the primary fixation of energy and its subsequent transfer to higher trophic levels. Hence qualitative and quantitative studies of zooplankton diversity are of great importance. Therefore, the study aimed at evaluating the taxonomic composition, abundance and diversity of zooplankton over a period of one year in three different wetlands of Barak valley to determine the diversity of zooplankton among the water bodies. MATERIALS AND METHODS The distribution of zooplankton was investigated from three different wetlands of Barak valley for one year from June 2012 to May 2013. The three different wetlands were (Site-1) Ramnagar anua (Latitude, 24 o 49 ʹ 57.3” N and Longitude 92 o 45 ʹ 23.7” E), (Site-2) Srikona beel (Latitude, 24 o 50 ʹ 18.9” N and Longitude 92 o 43 ʹ 11.5” E) and (Site-3) Tapang haor (Latitude, 24 o 49 ʹ 24.6” N and Longitude 92 o 42 ʹ 6.8” E). Qualitative and quantitative zooplankton samples were collected by filtering 100 L water from the different study sites at monthly intervals from the surface waters with the help of plankton net. Collected specimens were preserved in 5% formalin for quantitative and qualitative examination. Zooplankton enumeration were done by introducing 1ml of the preserved sample into Sedgwick-Rafter counting chamber International Journal of Applied and Natural Sciences (IJANS) ISSN(P): 2319-4014; ISSN(E): 2319-4022 Vol. 5, Issue 5, Aug – Sep 2016; 41-46 © IASET