Diversity and Abundance of Zooplankton phylums in the Anzali Wetland

Anzali wetland is one of the most important ecosystem for fishes spawning and zooplankton groups are the first consumer in this ecosystem .They are the perfect food for the larvae of fishes. Zooplankton status was evaluated in 10 stations of different areas of the Anzali wet land during March 2014 to February2015. Sampling was done by tube (PVC) and passing through of 30 micron planktonic net. The samples were identified and counted by invert microscope. A total of 72 Genus of phylum Actinopoda, Rhizopoda, Ciliophora,, Rotatoria, Arthropoda, Gastrotricha, Mollusca, Tardigrada, Nematoda, Porifera, Annelida) were identified. The results showed that the maximum and Minimum annual average density of zooplankton was observed with 9667± 12383 and 312 ± 1539 ind.lit-1 in Komeh Sheijan station and West Wetlands Center station Respectively.The population was more in the summer than in other season phylum of Rotatoria, Rhizopoda, Ciliophora and superclass Copepoda formed 59, 8,30 and 3 percent of the density respectively. According to the results the populationof zooplankton is ncreased compared to past studies. According to the statistical analysis Kruskal Wallis there were not significant differences between density of zooplankton in different stations, months and seasons (p > 0.05), but significant differences were found in between different phylum (p < 0.05). Overall, the results showed that the Anzali wetland has Eutroph condition.