Composition and biodiversity of zooplankton in coastal waters of Bushehr province of Persian Gulf

We aimed to investigate diversity and density in zooplankton of the Persian Gulf. To do so, zooplankton samples were collected from 18 stations in summer and winter 2017. In winter 2017, 18 zooplankton species were identified, while the number of species observed in summer was 7. Generally, crustaceans had the most abundance (48%), and then Mollusca and Chordata abundances were 1%. Acrocalanus spp and Centropages spp showed the most abundance in winter (577±458 ind.m-3) and summer (848±487 ind.m-3), respectively.  Shannon diversity index varied in summer among various stations (0.68-1.83). Its highest level was detected in station 1A and its lowest level was seen in station 4D. In winter, the variation of this index was from 1.29 to 3.05. In summer, Shannon diversity index values varied between stations (0.68 to 1.83), with the highest at station A1 and the lowest at station D4. In winter, there was a significant positive correlation between temperature and Margalef's index (p < 0.05) and negative correlation with density (p < 0.05), whereas in summer, diversity indices were not significantly correlated with any environmental parameters (p>0.05).