Zooplankton Community in the Southeastern Sea of Korea

Abstract

The monthly variations of zooplankton community were investigated at 12 stations in the southeastern sea of Korea. Zoplankton were collected by a plankton net, RN80 (80 cm diameter with 330 µm) from near the bottom to the surface from April to July, 2012. Zooplankton community consisted of 97 taxa including 39 copepod species. The mean density ranged from 212.9 inds.m-3 in July to 426.3 inds.m-3 in April. Copepods dominated the zooplankton community, reaching 38.98% of the density. Calanus sinicus, Corycaeus affinis, Paracalanus parvus, copepodid, Evadne nordmonni, Podon leuckarti, Cirriped nauplius, Muggiacea sp., Diphyes sp., and Sagitta bedoti were dominant species. Of these, Calanus sinicus was most abundant throughout the study period, accounting for 18.6% of total zooplankton. The variations in dominant species density between stations and months were found to be correlated with the environmental conditions. Zooplankton community varied with by sampling months.