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Change in the fundamental niche of Mesocyclops species by the action of Brachionus species at Ranchi Lake

Nivedita Moon Moon* & Nayni Saxena
University Department of Zoology, Ranchi University, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India
Received : 02nd February, 2022 ; Revised : 04th March, 2022

Abstract– Changes in the niche structure of a cultural eutrophic lake at Ranchi were studied in relation to the population structure of three zooplankters Mesocyclops leuckartii, Brachionus qudridentatus and Brachionus angularis. Twenty two parameters were used to define the broad environmental framework of the lake. These parameters create an n-dimensional hypervolume within which the plankton selects the optimum combination of variables that creates its fundamental niche. The fundamental niche of Mesocyclops is defined by three parameters: food resource, temperature, and alkalinity. However, the same food resource is used by other zooplankton and thus compresses the fundamental niche to a realized niche. The parameters defining the fundamental niche are in turn are controlled by a variety of other subsystems. The result showed that the Brachionus species caused a change in the fundamental niche of Mesocyclops species.

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