Influence of Aquatic Plants of Different Ecological Groups on Zooplankton Distribution and Abundance

Abstract

The distribution of zooplankton has been studied in a waterbody whose entire area is occupied by phytocenoses with the dominance of plants of different ecological groups. It is shown that, in the phytocoenosis of the submerged hydrophyte Elodea canadensis, zooplankton is involved in the classical grazing trophic web. The zooplankton community in this phytocoenosis is mainly made up by algaephagous species. In the habitats occupied by emergent plant Carex riparia, zooplankton is more closely associated with the components of the “microbial loop,” where the most abundant groups are predators and bacterio-detritophagous species.