Zooplankton diversity of Andaman Sea

Abstract

Zooplankton are economically important large group of tiny animals. They are very useful indicators of currents helping hydrographers, foraminiferam ooze helping oil explorers, apart from their marvellous capacity of concentrating radioisotopes, indicators of pollution and food for fishes. An attempt has been made to collect, classify and identify zooplankton of Andaman sea. Zooplankton samples were collected at 28 stations (02 degrees 30.00'N, 87 degrees 10.00'E to 14 degrees 02.93'N, 93 degrees 54.00'E) around the Andaman and Nicobar islands by vertical and horizontal hauls. The biomass ranged from 0.002 to 0.16mlm sup(-3), standing stock ranged from 0.06 to 142.14 organlsms/m sup(-3). While diversity index (Sheldon's E) showed a maximum of 2.9 and evenness component diversity (Pileou's J). 1. The samples were dominated by copcpods followed by chaetognaths, amphipods and pelagic tuicates. The analysis indicates that Andaman waters harbour a rich zooplankton diversity which needs to be explored further.