A review of zooplankton ecology in Lake Kariba

The zooplankton of Lake Kariba has attracted attention from a number of workers in the years since the lake was created. Like every other group, it provides an opportunity to study the evolution of a lacustrine community from a riverine one. It is strongly influenced by the seasonal cycle in the lake, as well as by the in-flowing rivers, which allow s us to learn something about nutrient dynamics and the processes of production in the lake. The zooplankton was greatly altered by the introduction of the sardine. L.miodon, from Lake Tanganyika and this unplanned experiment has contributed to our understanding of the effect of planktivorous fish on zooplankton communities. Finally, an understanding of the zooplankton became even more necessary following the development of flourishing fishery for L. miodon which made it the most important fish species in the lake. This work is briefly reviewed in this paper. It considers firstly, the species composition in the lake and then describes the changes brought about by the sardine. A discussion of the seasonal and diurnal cycles is followed by a consideration of the importance of the in-flowing rivers. A central theme of this review is the relationship between the zooplankton and its major predator, L. miodon.

a research paper on the ecology and aquatic systems of Lake Kariba.