Benjamin Onozeyi Dimowo

Department of Aquaculture and Fisheries Management, College of Environmental Resources Management, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun state, Nigeria
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Aquaculture, 2013, Vol. 3, No. 3   doi: 10.5376/ija.2013.03.0003
Received: 09 Jan., 2013    Accepted: 29 Jan., 2013    Published: 17 Feb., 2013

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Investigation on the species composition and abundance of zooplankton in Ogun River, Abeokuta, Ogun state, Southwestern Nigeria was carried out for a period of seven months (December, 2011 - June, 2012), Using hand trawling method, 55 µm mesh size plankton net was trawled horizontally ten times to capture zooplankton. The zooplankton samples were put into properly labeled plastic containers and preserved in 4% formalin solution. A total of sixteen genera from five taxonomic groups were recorded from Ogun River. Cladocera predominated both in terms of species composition and abundance. Five species of Cladocera was recorded consisting of 31.25%. Protozoa and Rotifera recorded four species each consisting of 25%. Copepoda recorded two species consisting of 12.5%, and Ostracoda with one species consisting of 6.25%. The low nature of zooplankton abundance and species composition observed in this study must have been caused by the polluted nature of the water due to the anthropogenic activities carried out around its shores The dominance of Cladocera in this river is similar to findings from River Echara and River Imo, Southeastern Nigeria.

Abundance; Composition; Southwestern Nigeria; Ogun River; Zooplankton species