Effects of salinity on species composition of zooplankton on Hau River, Mekong Delta, Vietnam

The area surrounding the Hau River is one of the most important aquaculture and fisheries areas in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. Fish, shrimp farms and fishers rely of the natural zooplankton production in the incoming water to sustain production. Zooplankton samples were collected from July 2017 to June 2018 using a zooplankton net with mesh size of 60 μm at 3 sites on Hau river at Tran De (river mouth), Dai Ngai (midpoint) and Cai Con (farthest salt intrusion area on Hau river). Qualitative and quantitative samples of zooplankton together with salinity level were determined monthly at each sites. The salinity was found to fluctuate from 0 to 20‰ in the study area. A total of 137 zooplankton species were recorded including 26 species of Protozoa (19%), 47 species of Rotifera (34%), 12 species of Cladocera (9%), 44 species of Copepoda (32%) and 8 other taxon (6%). Copepod and rotifer prevailed with high densities (19.9 × 103 ind m−3 and 19.7 × 103 ind m−3, respectively), whereas protozoa and cladocera were less abundant with 6.8 × 103 ind m−3 and 4.9 × 103 ind m−3, respectively. When salinity increased to more than 5, protozoa and copepods were more abundant and reached a peak at 20 with 25.0 × 1036 ind m−3 and 53.0 × 103 ind m−3, respectively. Regression analysis indicated that the density of zooplankton was significantly correlated to salinity variation. Protozoa and copepod were positively correlated with salinity, whereas cladocera and rotifer were negatively correlated with salinity. The impacts of climate change could exacerbate the seasonal fluctuations in salinity and zooplankton composition.Zooplankton was found to change proportionally with salinity changes in the Mekong Delta (MD) estuarine areas. Rotifera and Cladocera were inversely proportional while Protozoa and Copepoda were positively proportional to salinity. This first time ever findings can be applied to predict change in biological productivity of the estuarine ecosystem in the MD