Characterization of zooplankton communities and the interspecific relationships among dominant species in the Jinghe River Basin, Northwest China.

To analyze the characteristics of zooplankton community and the interspecific relationship of dominant species in Jinghe River Basin, we conducted a systematic water ecology survey in the autumn of 2021 (October) and the spring of 2022 (May). The results showed that a total of 71 genera and 150 species of zooplankton were identified in spring and autumn. The number of zooplankton species and the average density in autumn were smaller than that in spring. There were significant differences in community structure between the two seasons. There were 13 dominant species in both seasons, according to the criterion of dominance degree Y≥0.02. The results of ecologi-cal niche overlap (O_ik) analysis of dominant species showed that the autumn ecological niche overlap (0.455) was greater than the spring (0.381) because of poorer habitat conditions in autumn. Dominant species in autumn showed insignificant positive associations but significant positive associations in spring, indicating that the zooplankton community was more stable in spring. The results of point correlation coefficient (Φ) showed that the significant positive and negative associations in autumn (2.3) were less than those in spring (2.5), indicating positive succession in the zooplankton community in the Jinghe River Basin from autumn to spring.