Sociology

Organic chemistry

Nitrate

Population

Biology

Environmental chemistry

Salinity

Nutrient

Demography

Engineering

Trophic state index

Zooplankton

Chemistry

Eutrophication

Geotechnical engineering

Chemical oxygen demand

Ecology

Biochemical oxygen demand

Cladocera

Chlorophyll a

Water quality

Botany

Hydrology (agriculture)

Wastewater

Environmental science

Phosphorus

Trophic level

Environmental engineering

Diversity

Burullus Lake is Egypt’s second most important coastal lagoon. The present study aimed to shed light on the different types of polluted waters entering the lake from various drains, as well as to evaluate the zooplankton community, determine the physical and chemical characteristics of the waters, and study the eutrophication state based on three years of seasonal monitoring from 2017 to 2019 at 12 stations. The results revealed that Rotifera, Copepoda, Protozoa, and Cladocera dominated the zooplankton population across the three-year study period, with a total of 98 taxa from 59 genera and 10 groups detected in the whole-body lake in 2018 and 2019, compared to 93 species from 52 genera in 2017. Twelve representative surface water samples were collected from the lake to determine physicochemical parameters, i.e., temperature, pH, salinity, dissolved oxygen, biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, ammonia-N, nitrate–N, nitrate-N, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, dissolved reactive phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a, as well as Fe, Cu, Zn, Cr, Ni, Cd, and Pb ions. Based on the calculations of the water quality index (WQI), the lake was classified as having good water quality. However, the trophic state is ranked as hyper-eutrophic and high trophic conditions.

Assessment of Water Quality, Eutrophication, and Zooplankton Community in Lake Burullus, Egypt