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An Assessment of the Water Quality of 10 Waikato Lakes Based on Zooplankton Community Composition

TR 2007/34
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Report: TR 2007/34

Author: Ian C. Duggan

Abstract

In late 2006 and early 2007, Environment Waikato conducted surveys of 10 lakes in the Waikato region. The purpose of the work was to assess a variety of techniques for their potential as biological indicators of lake health. In this report, the community composition of zooplankton was documented from single plankton samples from the 10 sampled lakes. Additionally, species not found in the plankton were assessed by hatching of zooplankton eggs removed from benthic sediment samples. From the resulting species datasets, the Rotifer Community Index of Duggan et al. (2001a) was used to infer the water quality of the lakes. Finally, these inferred trophic states were compared with a rank order of water quality for the lakes as predetermined by Environment Waikato staff based on preliminary monitoring data.

An Assessment of the Water Quality of 10 Waikato Lakes Based on Zooplankton Community Composition [PDF, 106 KB]