Seasonal shift in zooplankton communities in two sub-tropical urban wetlands, Southern China

The seasonal shift in the community pattern of zooplankton was studied in two typical urban landscape wetland systems (West Lake and Xixi Wetland) during four.seasons (June 2013 to May 2014). Samples were monthly collected at six sampling stations within a gradient of environmental stress in West Lake and Xixi Wetland, respectively. A total of 119 zooplankton species were identified, comprising 75 rotifers, 23 cladocerans and 21 copepods. Multivariate analysis revealed that: (1) the species compositions represented significant differences between two biotopes, with Rotifera assemblage as the primary contributor to the difference; (2) the community structures showed dissimilar seasonal variation in both wetlands, and 14 rotifer species were the main contributors to this dissimilarity; (3) the temporal variations in zooplankton community structures were significantly correlation with the environmental variables in both systems, especially NO2-N and NO3-N in West Lake, pH, DO, T, COD in Xixi Wetland; (4) the species diversity indices (Margalef, Pielou and Shannon-Wiener) showed higher values in Xixi Wetland than that in West Lake. Based on the above results, we suggest that zooplankton community structures are significantly shaped by environmental drivers, and thus may be used as potential bioindicators of water quality in sub-tropical urban landscape wetland ecosystems.