Distribution and abundance of Cladocera (Branchiopoda) in the Paraíba do Sul River estuary, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Abstract

To characterize the cladoceran community of the Paraíba do Sul River estuary, located in the district of São João da Barra, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, cladocerans were collected monthly in nine sampling stations from September 2002 until August 2003. Samples were obtained by subsurface tows using a plankton net with a 30 cm opening mouth and 70 micron mesh size, fitted with a mechanical flowmeter. Environmental parameters such as salinity and temperature were also obtained. Seventeen species of Cladocera were identified: Pseudoevadne tergestina, Penilia avirostris, Macrothrix triserialis, Moina micrura, Simocephalus kerhervei, Simocephalus vetalus, Simocephalus latirostris, Simocephalus serrulatus, Alona rectangula, Alona quadrangularis, Bosmina longirostris, Bosminopsis deitersi, Camptocercus dadayi, Ceriodaphnia richardi, Diaphanosoma fluviatile, Kurzia latissima and Pleuroxus similis. The highest total abundance of Cladocera occurred in April in the marine zone of the estuary. The most abundant species during this period was Penilia avirostris. At the mixing and freshwater zones of the estuary, the most abundant species were Moina micrura, mainly in January; and Simocephalus vetalus and Bosmina longirostris during spring. From this scenario, it can be inferred that the cladoceran community of the Paraíba do Sul River estuary presents characteristics of marine, brackish and freshwater environments. Temperature and salinity seem to limit the occurrence and distribution of cladocerans in the estuary.<br>O presente estudo teve como objetivo caracterizar a comunidade zooplanctônica de cladóceros no estuário do Rio Paraíba do Sul, localizado no município de São João da Barra, RJ. O zooplâncton foi coletado mensalmente de setembro/2002 a agosto/2003 em nove estações através de arrastos subsuperficiais com uma rede de plâncton com abertura de boca de 30 cm e malha de 70 mµ, dotada de fluxômetro mecânico. Foram medidas simultaneamente a salinidade e a temperatura. Foram identificadas dezessete espécies de cladóceros: Pseudoevadne tergestina, Penilia avirostris, Macrothrix triserialis, Moina micrura, Simocephalus Kerhervei, Simocephalus vetalus, Simocephalus latirostris, Simocephalus serrulatus, Alona rectangula, Alona quadrangularis, Bosmina longirostris, Bosminopsis deitersi, Camptocercus dadayi, Ceriodaphnia richardi, Diaphanosoma fluviatile, Kurzia latissima e Pleuroxus similis. As maiores abundâncias de cladóceros ocorreram no mês de abril na zona marinha do estuário. A espécie mais abundante nesse período foi Penilia avirostris. Na zona de mistura e fluvial do estuário, as espécies mais abundantes foram Moina micrura, principalmente durante o mês de janeiro; Simocephalus vetalus e Bosmina longirostris na primavera. Diante desse cenário, pode-se dizer que a comunidade de cladóceros no estuário do Rio Paraíba do Sul apresenta características de ambientes marinhos, estuarinos e limnicos. A salinidade e a temperatura parecem limitar a ocorrência e distribuição dos cladóceros no estuário

Spatio-temporal variations of the zooplankton abundance and composition in a West African tropical coastal lagoon (Grand-Lahou, Côte d’Ivoire)

“…Freshwater, brackish and marine zooplankton communities, similar to those observed in the Grand Lahou lagoon, have been described in other brackish water environments, as for example the Ebrié Lagoon in Côte d'Ivoire (Arfi et al, 1987); the river Paraiba do Sul estuary in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Sterza & Fernandes, 2006) and the Pô River delta in Italy (Ferrari et al, 1982). Taxa from the freshwater community have been already reported in some freshwater ecosystems in Côte d'Ivoire (Yté et al 1996;Aka et al 2000) or in other West African countries as Senegal (Kâ et al, 2006) and Nigeria (Egborge, 1994).…”

Zooplankton characterisation of Pampean saline shallow lakes, habitat of the Andean flamingoes

“…Derry et al (2003) found that in Canadian shallow lakes with chloride waters, B. plicatilis and the hapacticoid copepod Cletocampus sp., were the dominant species. However, it cannot be claimed that some abundant species such as Moina micrura and Metacyclops mendocinus should be considered indicators of a narrow range of salinity or a limited ionic concentration because they generally show a relatively wide range of tolerance (Rzóska, 1961;Alonso, 1996;Sterza and Fernández, 2006;Santangelo et al, 2008;Brucet et al, 2009).…”

The Zooplankton Community and Its Relationship With Environmental Variables in a Highly Polluted System, Golden Horn, Turkey

“…Estuaries as transition areas between land and sea form aquatic ecosystems that are characterized as one of the most dynamic ecosystems by a variety of inter-related biotic and abiotic structural components and intensive chemical, physical and biological processes which influence species density and diversity (Aslan-Yılmaz et al, 2004;Telesh, 2004;Yüksek et al, 2006;Sterza and Fernandes, 2006;Sun et al, 2009). …”

“…Because of the unusual dynamic conditions experienced in estuaries zooplankton distribution is spatially and temporally heterogeneous, more so than in other aquatic ecosystems (Kibirige and Perissinotto, 2003;Sterza and Fernandes, 2006). High primary production levels make estuarine zooplankton very abundant, however some other biological factors, like environmental variables, may restrict the variety of the zooplankton species when compared to that of the marine areas.…”