Abstract: To explore the distribution of zooplankton community structure and water quality in the upstream and downstream of the comprehensive hub of Xiangjiang river, Changsha, the samples were collected 6 times and analyzed from January 2016 to November 2016. The results showed that 125 species of zooplankton, include 60 species of rotifers, 41 species of protozoa, 13 species of cladocera and 11 species of copepods were identified. Rotifers and protozoa occupy the dominant position in species composition. The protozoa was dominant species on the time scale, and spherical sand shell was the dominant species in the water whole year. One-way analysis of variance showed significant differences in zooplankton density on time scale （P<0.05）, but not on spatial scale （P>0.05）. The results of principal component analysis （PCA） showed that dissolved oxygen, fluoride, Cu, Cd and Zn were the main environmental factors affecting the community structure of zooplankton. Redundancy analysis （RDA） showed that heavy metals were still the main pollutants affecting the community structure, and were heavily polluted by organic pollutants. The biodiversity index evaluation showed that the water quality of the studied watershed was slight to middle level pollution, and the water quality of the upstream watershed was better than that of the downstream,and the water quality met the class II to III water standards.

Key words: zooplankton, spatial and temporal distribution, water quality, community structure, Xiangjiang river