Organisms/m 
Reservoir Plankton Communities 
97 
co 
Month 
Station 6B (pelagic) 
G-EH3 Station 6C (nearshore) 
Fig. 5. Total zooplankton densities by station for Sutton Reservoir during 
1985. 
described in the literature from North Carolina reservoirs. Diaptomus 
dorsalis is typically found in states in the Gulf of Mexico region (Wilson 
and Yeatman 1959). Eurytemora affinis is a variable marine form found 
in North Carolina estuaries (Peters 1968), and its presence in Sutton 
Reservoir is undoubtedly related to the estuarine influence of the lower 
Cape Fear River. The cladocerans were mostly typical species of North 
Carolina reservoirs with the exception of Ceriodaphnia quadr angularis . 
Ceriodaphnia reticulata or C. lacustris are usually the members of that 
genus reported from reservoir surveys of this area (Coker 1928, Weiss et 
al. 1975, DPC 1977, Mallin 1986). 
The taxa of rotifers found in Sutton Reservoir are normally present 
in North Carolina reservoirs, but there were differences in the dominant 
taxa. Members of the genus Brachionus have been noted in low 
densities in several impoundments, but in Sutton Reservoir this genus 
was dominant in the rotifer community. Some species of this genus 
found in Sutton Reservoir, B. quadridentatus and B. plicatilis , are 
abundant in salt or brackish water (Edmondson 1959). The appearance 
of these two taxa coincided with an increase in chloride from 160 mg/ 1 
