Zooplankton of Kılavuzlu dam lake (Kahramanmaraş) and the effect of cage fish farming on water quality and zooplankton fauna of the dam lake

Abstract

Water quality parameters and zooplankton fauna of Kılavuzlu Dam Lake were determined. It was found that among water quality parameters, sechi depth, temperature, silica, Ca and CaCO3amounts were higher in the first(referans) station; while conductivi-ty, dissolved oxygen, pH, chlorophyll a, nitrate and phosphate values were higher in second (cage) station.A total of 57 taxa were identified in the study. Of these taxa, 33 belonged to Rotifera, 14 belonged to Cladocera and 10 belonged to Copepoda. It was found that Keratella cochlearis, Daphnia longispina, Cyclops vicinus, Acanthodiaptomus denticorniswere the most common throughout the year, while Asco-morpha ovalis, Dicranophorus epicharis, Keratella tecta, Notholcaacuminata, Testudinella patina, T. mucronata, Trichotria pocillum, Disparalona rostra-ta, Scapholeberiskingi, Leydigia leydigi, Alona gut-tata, Eucyclops speratus, Paracyclops chiltoni were the least species.Monommata longiseta, Trichocercaporcellus, Di-aphanasoma birgei, Eurycercus lamellatuswere only found in the first station, while Ascomorpha ovalis, Notholcaacuminata,Rotaria neptunia, Trichotria pocillum,Disparalona rostrataand Eucyclops spera-tus were only found in the second station.Rotifera was represented with higher number of spe-cies in first station for 5 months but Copepoda was represented with higher number of species in second station for 5 months. The abundance of groups according to months and sta-tions revealed that Rotifera and Copepoda were abun-dant quantitatively in first station for 7 months; while Cladocera was abundant in first station for 8 months. On the other hand, amount of all zooplankton species were found to be more abundant in cage station in April (6605±4597.35 individual m-3) and more abun-dant in first station in September (1635±2384.852 in-dividual m-3) (P > 0.05).