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Vol. 51 No. 2, 2012
Biodiversity of Planktonic Copepods in the Lanyang River (Northeastern Taiwan), a Typical Watershed of Oceania
Hans-Uwe Dahms1, Li-Chun Tseng2, Shih-Hui Hsiao2, Qing-Chao Chen3, Bong-Rae Kim4, and Jiang-Shiou Hwang2,*
1Green Life Science Department, College of Convergence, Sangmyung Univ., 7 Hongij-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul110-743, South Korea
2Institute of Marine Biology, National Taiwan Ocean University, 2 Pei-Ning Road, Keelung 202, Taiwan
3South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Science, Guangzhou 510301, China
4National Fisheries Research and Development Institute, Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Kyunggi-do 114-3, South Korea
Hans-Uwe Dahms, Li-Chun Tseng, Shih-Hui Hsiao, Qing-Chao Chen, Bong-Rae Kim, and Jiang-Shiou Hwang (2012)
To evaluate the environmental status of a typical Oceania watershed in
Taiwan, zooplankton samples were collected bimonthly along the Lanyang
River (NE Taiwan) at 9 different stations including 1 estuarine and 8
freshwater stations during 10 sampling campaigns from June 2004 to Dec.
2005. Upstream stations showed lower chlorophyll a and temperature
values than downstream stations; the highest chlorophyll a
concentration was found in the estuary at all times. We identified 21
copepod species, belonging to 4 orders, 12 families, and 20 genera in
total. Eleven species were recorded only once among all samples. The
Calanoida was restricted to samples from the estuary. The
Poecilostomatoida was only recorded from the estuary and the Lanyang
Bridge station. The Harpacticoida was only recorded from the estuary,
Lanyang Bridge, and Tsu-Keng River stations. At 2 mid-section stations,
no copepods were found. The upstream station showed lower abundance,
species number, species richness, and evenness and diversity indices
than the downstream and estuarine stations. The estuarine station
provided the highest copepod abundance (3410.05 individuals/m3)
and species number (12 species/station) in Aug. 2004 when the waters
showed the highest salinities (37 psu), indicating the marine origin of
the diverse biota. Among all samples, there were no significant
differences in the abundance, number of species, or indices of
richness, evenness, and diversity among sampling months. In contrast,
our analysis clearly showed a succession in abundance and species
composition among sampling months. At the estuarine station, copepod
abundances were significantly positive correlated with salinity (r = 0.880, p = 0.001). Numbers of species were significantly positive correlated with chlorophyll a (r = 0.790, p = 0.007), salinity (r = 0.780, p = 0.008), and copepod abundance (r = 0.785, p
= 0.007). Copepod abundances were mainly affected by intruding
seawater, but there was no interaction with the month of sampling.
Key words: Riverine zooplankton, River ecology, Estuary, Copepod mesozooplankton, Plankton communities.
*Correspondence: Tel: 886-935289642. Fax: 886-2-24629464. E-mail:jshwang@mail.ntou.edu.tw
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