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Proportion of dead individuals in the zooplankton of the Curonian Lagoon of the Baltic Sea

  • Zooplankton, Zoobenthos, and Zooperiphyton
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Abstract

Changes have been studied in space and time in the proportion of dead individuals in the zooplankton of the Curonian Lagoon. Dead individuals were found in the populations of all dominant invertebrate species. Their proportion was shown to increase during “hyperbloom” by a factor of 5 to 6. In the vegetation period without algal hyperbloom (2007), the dead individuals accounted on average for 1.9 ± 0.7% of the total abundance and 1.7 ± 0.8% of the total biomass of zooplankton; in the vegetation period with hyperbloom (2008), their proportion increased to 6.7 ± 3.0% and 5.9 ± 2.5%, respectively. Differences in sensitivity to bloom of Cianobacteria have been revealed in hydrobionts from different groups. Cladocera and nauplial Copepoda are the most sensitive groups; Cyclopoida is the least sensitive. The highest proportion of dead individuals was recorded in the most eutophicated and polluted part of the lagoon. It is suggested that parameters of zooplankton mortality be used for estimating the ecological state of the Curonian Lagoon.

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Correspondence to A. S. Semenova.

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Original Russian Text © A.S. Semenova, 2011, published in Biologiya Vnutrennikh Vod, No. 3, 2011, pp. 35–44.

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Semenova, A.S. Proportion of dead individuals in the zooplankton of the Curonian Lagoon of the Baltic Sea. Inland Water Biol 4, 332–340 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1995082911020180

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