International Journal of Ecotoxicology and Ecobiology 2017; 2(1): 1-7 http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/ijee doi: 10.11648/j.ijee.20170201.11 Impact of Water Temperature and Salinity on the Distribution and Abundance of Shrimp (Crustacean: Decapoda) at Lake Burullus, Egypt Khalid Abd-Elatef El-Damhogy 1 , Ahmed Mabrook Mohamed Heneash 2 , Ahmed EL-Sayed Zakey 3 1 Marine Biology and Fish Division, Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt 2 Hydrobiology Department, National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Alexandria, Egypt 3 Meddile East Laboratory of General Authority for Fishery Resources Development, Ministry Agriculture and Land Reclamation, Kafr Al-shayekh, Egypt Email address: keldamhougy@yahoo.com (K. Abd-Elatef El-Damhogy), aheneash@yahoo.com (A. M. M. Heneash), vireo1983@yahoo.com (A. EL-Sayed Zakey) To cite this article: Khalid Abd-Elatef El-Damhogy, Ahmed Mabrook Mohamed Heneash, Ahmed EL-Sayed Zakey. Impact of Water Temperature and Salinity on the Distribution and Abundance of Shrimp (Crustacean: Decapoda) at Lake Burullus, Egypt. International Journal of Ecotoxicology and Ecobiology. Vol. 2, No. 1, 2017, pp. 1-7. doi: 10.11648/j.ijee.20170201.11 Received: October 31, 2016; Accepted: November 17, 2016; Published: December 20, 2016 Abstract: The impact of water temperature and salinity on the abundance and distribution of shrimp in Lake Burullus, Egypt was studied at 7 selected sites during the period from January to December 2015. The shrimp in Lake Burullus during this work is represented by three species (Metapenaeus stebbingi, M. monoceros and Penaeus semisulcatus). They dominated by P. semisulcatus being constituted 51% of the annual mean of shrimp number while M. monoceros came to the second which represent 35%, at the same time the M. stebbingi was occupied the third status by 14%. P. semisulcatus and M. monoceros appeared in the period between (September and December) while species M. stebbingi was collected during the period between (April and June). Regarding sites, the shrimp present in sites 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 but they absent at site 7. The highest annual mean of shrimp density was 872.50 ± 372.45 Ind./CPUE/ 12h but the lowest annual one was 230.17 ± 84.03 Ind./CPUE/ 12h. Monthly, the maximum mean of shrimp number was 2209.67 ± 522.40 Ind./CPUE/12h during October, but the minimum one was 195 ± 86.25 Ind./CPUE/12h in June with an annual mean being 460.54 ± 195.15Ind./CPUE/ 12h. During this work, temperature has positive correlation with non-significant effect on the collected species (P>0.05), while the relation between the abundance of all collected species and salinity was positively significant relationship (P<0.05). Keywords: Lake Burullus, Salinity, Temperature, Shrimp, Abundance 1. Introduction Lake Burullus is shallow slightly brackish water situated along the Egyptian Mediterranean Sea coasts [1, 2]. It occupies an area of about 455.3346 km² (108,413 feddans) till 2015, the length of the lake about 51.52 km, its width ranged between 5.52 and 15.89 km with an average 10.705 km and it has water depth 0.8 m. to 2.5 m., the depth increases from east to west [3]. In Egypt, the majority of shrimp fisheries production consists of small species (Metapenaeus stebbingi, Trachypenaeus curvirostris, Parapenaeus longirostris and Solenocera crassicornis), while larger sized species (P. japonicus, P. semisulcatus, P. kerathurus, P. latisulcatus and Metapenaeus monoceros) are caught only in small quantities [4]. According to [3], the economic crustacean production from Lake Burullus is restricted to the saline water which represented as shrimp about 92% of the total production of the northern lakes and about 5% of total Lake Burullus production. Temperature and salinity are the most important abiotic factors affecting the growth and survival of aquatic organisms [5]. The present work was conducted to study the effect of the water temperature and salinity on the abundance and occurrence of shrimp.