Dynamic of microzooplankton in microbial food web of the Southeastern Black Sea

Microzooplankton community structure, abundance, biomass and their relation with environmental factors were investigated between May 2015 and April 2016 in river mouth, coastal and open waters of Southeastern Black Sea.Microzooplankton was represented by a total of 108 species belonging to 97 Protozoa and 11 Metazoa during study period. Microzooplankton abundance ranged from 63 to 2733 cell. l-1 dominated by heterotrophic dinoflagellates. Microzooplankton biomass ranged from 0.7 to 28.9 µg C.l-1 and dominated by micrometazoans. Abundance and biomass values tended to decrease from river mouth to open waters. Total microplankton abundance was dominated by microphytoplankton, whereas microzooplankton was an important contributor of total microplankton biomass (41-50 %). No significant differences were found between sampling stations in terms of microzooplankton abundance and biomass (p>0.05). Microzooplankton abundance showed statistically signifacant correlation between tempretaure, salinity, Chl-a and phytoplankton abundance (p<0.05). This study shows that microzooplankton is an important participant of plankton in terms of abundance and biomass in the Southeastern Black Sea. The results suggest that microzooplankton might have an important role in the energy flow between the primary production and copepods which is favorite food for plantivorous fishes in the Southeastern Black Sea.