The zooplankton communities of small water reservoirs with different trophic conditions in two catchments in western Slovakia

Our study summarizes data from six small water reservoirs in West Slovakia and analyzes the occurrence of zooplankton groups in relation to physico-chemical and catchment variables. The reservoirs are in two different catchments – of the Morava and Váh rivers. A total of 103 species were identified; 64 crustaceans (in both the pelagic and littoral zones) and 39 planktonic Rotifera in the pelagic zones. Significant differences were observed in species richness, abundance and biomass of planktonic crustaceans: 48 species were characteristic of the Váh catchment, while 53 were found in the Morava catchment. The density of zooplankton in the three reservoirs of the Váh River catchment ranged from 102 ind L−1 to 21,488 ind L−1 and the zooplankton biomass ranged from 0.12 mg L−1 to 103.29 mg L−1. The density of zooplankton in three Morava River catchment reservoirs ranged from 2 ind L−1 to 3928 ind L−1 and the zooplankton biomass ranged from 0.1 mg L−1 to 27.3 mg L−1. The differences were found to be related to catchment (altitude and catchment affiliation), chemical (BOD5, DO) and biological (Chromophyta, Chlorophyta) factors. Eutrophication of reservoirs in the Váh catchment was mainly due to agriculture and fish management, resulting in high nutrient concentrations. Species richness showed an unimodal response to BOD5 and N-NH4 with near optimum low values, 4.6 and 0.19 respectively. The relationship to oxygen content reflects preferences for less eutrophic waters and species richness tended to decrease with increasing DO and to decrease with increasing nutrient content.