The composition and structure of the plankton community in the Tudor creek, Mombasa, Kenya.
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Author
Okemwa, E.Date
1993
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Show full item recordAbstract
This study was undertaken with a view to describing the species composition and the community structure of copepods in the Tudor Creek, Mombasa, Kenya. The first quantative study of the pelagic zooplankton community of the Tudor Creek was undertaken from December 1984 to December 1987. Between December and March 1985 a Bongo plankton net of. 335 ~km mesh size was used from the vessel ”R.V. Maumba”. From April 1985 to December 1987 a conical plankton net was used from a small canoe equipped with an outboord engine. The net, with a mesh aperture size of 335 ~km, a length of 1 m, and 45 cm in diameter at the mouth, was fitted with aflow meterat the mouth. Surface plankton samples were taken from September 1985 to August 1986 using a small canoe at each of five permanent stations during day-and night-time, at one neap and one spring tide each month. Thereafter only day-time neap and spring tide samples were taken from September 1986 to December 1987 at the five stations. 24hours cycle sampling was occasionally done at stations 1and 5 simultaneously. Results from the study shows that zooplankton are rich and abundant. Over 51 taXil were recorded. Close to74 % of the zooplankton comprised copepods of which the most important were calanoids followed by cyclopoids, poecilostomatoids, harpacticoids and monstrilloids. The most commonly encountered calanoid species were Centropages orsinii, Acrocalanus longicornis, Clausocalanus tarrani, Temora turbinata, Paracalanus aculeatis, P. simplex, Canthocalanus pauper, Undinula vulgaris, Acartia danae, Euchaeta marina and Eucalanus spp. The most common cyclopoid and harpacticoid species encountered were Corycaeus specious, Oncaea venusta, Copilia mirabilis, Sapphirina laetens. Oithona plumifera, O. setigera, O. simplex and Microsetella rosea, Euterpina acutifrons. Macrosetella sracilis respectively. Only occasionally did copepods of the order Monstrilloida appear in the samples. Some 99 copepod species, representing 41 genera and 30 families, have been identified. Amongst these,17 species were dominant but 6 of these including; Calanus darwini. Labidocera laevidentata, Paracalanus crassirostris, P.indicus. P.tropicus and Sapphirina lactens, were recorded for the first time in the Western Indian Ocean off the Kenyan coast.Title of Parent Book or Report
Workshop on Tropical Coastal Lagoon Ecosystems : Inhâca Island, Mozambique, December 3-5, 1991.Publisher or University
Swedish Agency for Research Cooperation with Developing Countries (SAREC)Collections