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Abstract

Plankton serve as live food for aquatic organisms and are indicators of water fertility, which is related to its abundance and diversity. Some live feeds also form a symbiotic relationship with macroalgae, known as epiphytic plankton, which is found in estuarine waters. The Brondong estuary area, Brondong District, Lamongan, East Java, with abundant Caulerpa sp. macroalgae, exemplifies these characteristics. This study aimed to identify the abundance, diversity, uniformity, and dominance indices of zooplankton, epiphytic microalgae, phytoplankton, and chlorophyll a in the Brondong estuary. Given that research on identifying epiphytic plankton species attached to Caulerpa sp. is lacking, this study investigates zooplankton, phytoplankton, and chlorophyll-a in the environment, correlating them with water quality. Stratified random sampling was conducted in May, June, and July 2023, with biota collection lasting for approximately 18–20 hours. The study identified two types of macroalgae, namely Caulerpa racimosa and Caulerpa lentimofera, and6 genera of epiphytic phytoplankton, namely Nitzschia, Asterionella, Ceratium, Rhizoclonium, Pleurosigma, and Oedogonium. The identified zooplankton consisted of four genera, namely Nauplius larva, Penaeus larva, Canalus, and Acartia. Based on chlorophyll a levels in the Brondong estuary, it falls into the mesotrophic or nutrient-rich category. The results obtained demonstrate that plankton can serve as an aquatic bioindicator that reflects the quality of water sources for aquaculture, and demonstrate the potential for domesticating organisms into aquaculture products. The high abundance of organisms in the Brondong waters results from the direct and indirect supply of nutrients from the mainland and the favorable water quality, which contributes to their fertility.

Keywords

Chlorophyll-a, Live feed, Marine, Microalgae epiphytic, Integrated aquaculture

Subject Area

Biology

Article Type

Article

First Page

2803

Last Page

2819

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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