Effects of Water Quality Parameters on Abundance and Biomass of Zooplankton in Merbok Estuary Malaysia

Abstract

Influence of water quality parameters on zooplankton abundance and biomass in the Merbok estuary Malaysia were investigated. Twenty four hours sampling were conducted at station 1, 3 and 5 from 12th November (spring tide) to 3rd December (neap tide) 2011 on weekly interval. Results showed that water quality parameters varied with the following ranges: conductivity (10.00-315.00?S-1cm), transparency (25.50-154.00 cm), light intensity (53.5-1959.00 lux), TSS (20-70 mg-1L), BOD (0.25-3.46 mg-1L) and chl a (0.1-1.46 ?g-1L). The highest zooplankton abundance was found at Station 5 (176×103) and (230×103) ind-3m and the lowest was at station 1(5.3×103) and (3.4 ×103) ind-3m during spring and neap tide. Zooplankton biomass varied from 0.04 to 0.096 gm-3m. Spearman’s rank correlation analysis results showed that there was a correlation among zooplankton abundance and conductivity, transparency, TSS, BOD, and biomass except chl and light intensity. Mann-Whitney U test result showed that water quality parameters, zooplankton abundance and zooplankton biomass were significantly different between spring and neap tides.J. Environ. Sci. & Natural Resources, 9(1): 117-122 2016