Responses of Freshwater Zooplankton as Biological Indicators to the Aquatic Chemical Properties

Abstract

Zooplankton are found very sensitive to even slight aquatic pollution due to a number of chemical imbalances in freshwater bodies. As an amazing tiny creature zooplankton play a very crucial role in the aquatic food chain by transferring energy from primary levels to tertiary organisms. For many years it has been well established that zooplankton act as promising biological indicators to continuously fluctuating aquatic environments and subsequently to global warming. While reacting to these aquatic environmental fluctu-ations, zooplankton population growth can either be stimulated or inhibited. The presence or absence of particular zooplankton species can reveal the trophic status of the water body. Moreover, in a harsh env-ironment, algal toxins may have drastic effects on the behavioral characteristics of zooplankton.

Deterministic assessment of the ecological vulnerability of coastal freshwater canals: A perspective on social awareness and conservation

“…The most convincing scientific justifications for using zooplankton as bio-monitors are their intermediary roles in the aquatic food chain, connecting primary producers with higher trophic levels, driving biogeochemical cycling, contributing to energy transfer in pelagic food webs, and ultimately affecting fish recruitment and other ecosystem services (Caroppo et al 2013;McQuatters-Gollop et al 2019). One of the zooplankton groups, copepods, can survive by feeding very selectively and avoiding toxic, filamentous, and comparatively large and colonial algae (Bari et al 2021). Usually, the copepods are found coexisting with rotifers in freshwater bodies, but not so dominantly (Singh et al 2013).…”