International Journal of Waste Resources

Abstract

Fish mediated plankton community dynamics at wastewater-fed fish ponds: A sustainable bio resource management at East Kolkata Wetlands, a Ramsar site (No. 1208)

Abhishek Roy Goswami, Shuvadip Adhikari, Sudin Pal and Subhra Kumar Mukhopadhyay*

Ingenious artisans sustainably converted wastes into wealth using wastewater-fed fish ponds at East Kolkata Wetlands (a Ramsar Site No. 1208) by regulating wastewater inflow and selection of fish of different maturity class. A top-down and bottom-up control exerted by phytoplankton and fish population respectively influenced the zooplankton community structure. The nutritional factors together with fish population significantly influenced the phytoplankton and zooplankton groups. Phytoplankters in nutrient rich wastewater influenced the zooplankton community structure by the way of bottom-up control. Larger fish differently influenced the zooplankton community structure compared to that of smaller ones as these fish with different gape sizes preferred different sizes of prey. Larger phytoplanktivore zooplankters were under top-down control as they were preferred by the fish with larger gape sizes.

Published Date: 2021-04-03; Received Date: 2021-02-26