Zooplankton of some lakes and rivers of the Subpolar Ural (Western macroslope)

Study Extent

The dataset provides information on the number of individuals of aquatic invertebrates in zooplankton samples.

Sampling

The research was carried out in the Bolshoy Patok river basin on June-July 2009, June 2012 and August 2017, in the Bolshaya Synya river basin on June-July 2003, July 2009 and September 2012, in the Torgovaya river basin on August 2009 and July 2019. The list of species contains only our own data.

Quality Control

The data were collected and identified by specialists from the Institute of Biology of the Komi Scientific Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Morphological analysis specimens were performed using compound microscopes BIMAM R13-1. For identification of species we used both standard keys and data reported in modern studies specifically addressing the taxonomy (Rylov 1948, Smirnov 1971, Borutsky et al. 1991, Shiel and Koste 1992, Segers 1995, Alekseev 2010, Bekker et al. 2012, Kutikova 1977, Wilke et al. 2019, Nogrady and Segers 2002 and others). 1. Rylov VM (1948) Fauna of the USSR. Crustaceans. Cyclopoida of the fresh waters. III. USSR Academy of Sciences Publishing House, Moscow, Leningrad, 320 pp. [In Russian]. 2. Smirnov NN (1971) Chydoridae of the fauna of the world. Nauka, Leningrad, 531 pp. [In Russian]. 3. Borutsky EV, Stepanova LA, Kos MS (1991) Keys to Calanoida of fresh waters of the USSR. Nauka, Leningrad, 504 pp. [In Russia]. 4. Shiel RJ, Koste W (1992) Rotifera from Australian inland waters. VIII. Trichocercidae. (Rotifera: Monogononta). Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 116: 1‑2. 5. Segers H (1995) Rotifera, Volume 2: The Lecanidae (Monogononta). SPB Academic Publishing BV, Hague, 226 pp. 6. Alekseev VR (Ed.) (2010) Key to identification of zooplankton and zoobenthos of fresh water of European Russia. Zooplankton. 1. KMK Scientific Press, Moscow, 495 pp. [In Russian]. [ISBN 978-5-87317-684-7]. 7. Bekker E, Kotov AA, Taylor DJ (2012) A revision of the subgenus Eurycercus (Eurycercus) Baird, 1843 emend. nov. (Cladocera: Eurycercidae) in the Holarctic with the description of a new species from Alaska. Zootaxa 3206: 1‑40. 8. Kutikova LA (1977) Rotifers of the fauna of the USSR (Rotatoria). Nauka, Leningrad, 744 pp. [In Russian]. 9. Wilke T, Wilko HA, Bininda-Emonds OR (2019) A weighted taxonomic matrix key for species of the rotifer genus Synchaeta (Rotifera, Monogononta, Synchaetidae). ZooKeys 871: 1‑40. https://doi.org/0.3897/zookeys.871.36435. 10. Nogrady T, Segers H (2002) Rotifera. Volume 6: Asplanchnidae, Gastropodidae, Lindiidae, Microcodidae, Synchaetidae, Trochosphaeridae and Filinia. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden, 264 pp.

Method steps

1. Zooplankton samples were collected using plankton nets with subsequent filtration 50 liters of water through mesh nylon nets with 82-100 mesh size. In lakes, samples were collected in the littoral and in the center (in the surface water horizon up to 2 meters deep). In rivers, samples were collected only in the littoral. Samples were preserved in 4% formaldehyde (in the field) and examined under light microscopes in the laboratory. Morphological analysis was performed using a stereomicroscope BIMAM R13-1. The zooplankton species (Cladocera, Copepoda and Rotofera) affiliation was ascertained under existing taxonomic keys in accordance with the present-day classification of each group.

This dataset provides current data on zooplankton fauna of 10 lakes and two rivers of the Subpolar Ural: lakes from Bolshoy Patok river basin, lakes from Torgovaya river basin and lakes and rivers from Bolshaya Synya river basin.

1. Copepoda
   rank: subclass
2. Cladocera
   rank: superorder
3. Rotifera
   rank: phylum

The studied water bodies are located in the Subpolar Ural (in the Bolshoy Patok river basin, Torgovaya river basin and Bolshaya Synya river basin). The height above the sea level ranged: from 159.6 to 657.6 m in the Bolshoy Patok river basin, from 264.2 to 526.7 m in the Bolshaya Synya river basin and from 522.8 to 721.7 in the Torgovaya river basin. Depths in the lakes varied from 3 to 38 m. Bottom in the littoral are boulders, pebbles, in the profundal - silty. The lakes Synya-ty and Patok-ty were covered with ice during the sampling period; zooplankton samples were collected in thawed patches.