Phytoplankton and Zooplankton Composition in Santubong River Basin and Estuaries

• Main Author: Nurul Farhana, Abdul Khair
• Format: Final Year Project Report
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, (UNIMAS) 2017
• Subjects: SH Aquaculture. Fisheries. Angling
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/24593/2/Farhana%20ft.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/24593/

A study on the composition of phytoplankton and zooplankton was conducted at eight stations of Santubong river basin and estuary to investigate the correlation between the co-occurrence of phytoplankton and zooplankton and the relationship with physical parameters. The phytoplankton and zooplankton samples were collected from three sampling trips from September 2016 to October 2016. Samples were preserved using acidic lugol solution and 4% formalin. Samples were enumerated using compound microscope. The phytoplankton and zooplankton were identified based on the detailed morphology. The composition of the phytoplankton and zooplankton was documented with total 53 taxa of phytoplankton and 23 taxa of zooplankton. The dominant group of phytoplankton was diatom and the dominant species found to be Skeletonema sp. Meanwhile, the dominant taxa of zooplankton was Copepoda followed by Custacean larvae and Tintinnina. Overall, there were no difference between the cell density of phytoplankton and zooplankton of each station. From the study, physical parameters did not have significant effect towards the phytoplankton cell density although Chlorophyll a concentration showed parallel relationship with the cell density of phytoplankton.