Zooplankton diversity recorded from the man-made wetlands of Cooch Behar town of West Bengal, India

Abstract

The district Coochbehar lies between 26017’58.57” to 26020’23.72” N and 89026’01.74” to 89027’34.26” E and is a part of Terai Himalaya of West Bengal of India. This district has a unique character of floral and faunal diversity for its geographical position which is adjacent to Indo-Malayan Hotspot. A number of lentic and lotic wetlands are present in this district as the district is located in a flood prone area. A large number of artificial wetlands are also present in the Coochbehar town most of which were created during the ‘Koch dynasty’ to cater the needs of the society. Some of them are Sagardighi, Rajmatadighi, Malidighi, Boiragidighi, Narasingha dighi, Lamba dighi, Laldighi etc. All these wetlands harbour a large number of Zooplanktons which are very important for their role as a part of second trophic level in aquatic ecosystem, that we had recorded during our study at UG level as a course curriculum of the syllabus. Our report is an extension of our previous study at UG and PG level based on the diversity and distribution of Zooplankton recorded from the man-made wetlands of Coochbehar town. This study recorded 14 Arthropods and 7 Rotifer from 7 man-made wetlands of the town. Detail diversity indices and Fisher (alpha) abundance index are analyzed. High counting of Cyplops from two wetlands indicating high level of organic pollution needs further limnological investigation.