Composition and Abundance of Zooplankton in the Behesht-Abad River, Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari

Zooplankton is one of the major animal groups in aquatic freshwater ecosystems. Zooplankton community composition evaluation is a useful approach of water quality assessment. Therefore, the present study was aimed to investigate Behesht-Abad River zooplankton community (diversity and density) alterations at different seasons. The sampling operations were carried out from the autumn 1394 until the summer of 1395. The results were showed the presence of 3 orders of zooplankton including cladocera, copepoda and rotifera. Moreover, rotifera represented the predominant component but cladocera were the lowest. Summer population density was more than other seasons while the lowest zooplankton abundance were in winter season period. In addition, density of zooplankton was high at Koohrang and Behesht-Abad rivers crossing (station 6) while Bagh-Rostam spring (station 4) were lowest population density. Moreover, according to Shannon and Simpson biodiversity were elicited the highest biodiversity during summer and the lowest biodiversity during winter.