A Study on the Diversity of the Zooplanktons with the Aid of Foldscope in Few Waterbodies of the Alipurduar district of West Bengal, India

The present investigation was carried out on 26 waterbodies situated at the 3 subdivisions of Alipurduar district from March to December, 2018 to assess the plankton diversity with the aid of foldscope. The device is significantly effective in the field study. Among the studied water bodies, 5 of them under the Alipurduar-I sub-division, 13 under Alipurduar-II, 1 under the Kumargran sub-division and other 7 under the Municipality area. Among them 14 becomes pond, 4 noyanjuli and 8 rivers spots. A total of 27 types of Zooplanktons and Protista were identified from different lentic and lotic wetlands. One larval form i. e. Nauplius larva have also been recorded during the course of study. Out of 27 species 14 belongs to phylum Crustacea, 8 Rotifera and 5 belong to the Kingdom Protista. Data were statistically analyzed for the species abundance (i. e. diversity, dominance and evenness indices) according to various waterbodies and species specific are presented in to article. Spot No.23 showed the highest diversity indices then Spot-6 and Spot-24 after then Spot-2 as per diversity. Paroecium sp is the most abundant species, and then comes to Cyclops sp, Arcella sp and Mesocyclops sp regarding their abundance. Therefore pond water are recorded higher zooplankton diversity indices compare to river spots.