Impact of Physicochemical Parameters of Water on Tintinnopsis from Safari Zoo Lake Lahore, Pakistan

A survey was conducted from September 2013 to August 2014 in Safari Zoo Lake to investigate zooplanktons. During this study, Tintinnids (Phylum Ciliophora) emerged in the beginning of December, 2013 and disappeared at the end of February, 2014. Three species of tintinnids belonging to one genus Tintinnopsis were identified. The order of abundance of species of tintinnids was T. sinensis, T. wangi and T. subpistillum. Tintinnids population was high in December. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that physico-chemical parameters including air temperature (F=2.56, P=0.185), water temperature (F= 1.25, P=0.327), dissolved oxygen (F=1.21, P= 0.334), oxygen saturation (F=0.09, P=0.778), transparency (F=1.62, P=0.272), pH (F=0.32, P=0.600), turbidity (F=10.87, P=0.030) and salinity (F= 2.83, P=0.168) were statistically non-significant. Electrical conductivity was statistically significant (F=5019.92, P=0.00). Shannon-Weaver index ranged 0.888 to 0.435 showing low diversity of tintinnids. These results were supported by Simpson index of dominance, Simpson index of diversity and Simpson reciprocal index. Species evenness was lower in February (0.396) and high in December (0.809) indicating even distribution in December. Species richness ranged 0.1-0.32 which meant very small food chain.