Zooplankton fauna

Abstract

The zooplankton population consists of minute animals living freely in water with limited powers of locomotion and is more or less drifted passively by water currents. Almost every major group of animals, either as adults, larvae or as both has its representatives in planktonic existence. Many of the commercially important prawns, mussels, other shellfishes and finfishes start their life as plankters. The communities of zooplankton form the vital intermediary link in the food chain of the sea both as consumers of the primary producers and as contributors to the higher trophic level. Many species are proven indicators of pollution, water mass, cold, warm, surface or deep waters, upwelling characteristics and of the coastal or estuarine environment depending on the time of their occurrence and the ambient ecological parameters.