The effects of food quality and quantity on zooplankton community structure are rarely examined in the field study. Here, the relative importance of food quality and quantity as well as physicochemical factors on crustacean zooplankton community was explored in 14 water bodies in spring in Hubei Province, China. The results showed that the density and biomass of crustaceans and the biomass percentage of Daphnia were all significantly and negatively correlated with K_d, while the community mean body length decreased with the increasing of chlorophyll-a (Chl.a) concentration. Canonical correspondence analysis showed that 37.4% of the total variation in crustacean zooplankton community was explained by seven factors. The first four most important factors were listed as K_d, Chl.a concentration, seston C/N and C/P ratios,accounting for 11.5%, 8.9%, 5.6% and 4.9% of the total variation, respectively. Cyclops vicinus vicinus was found to be inclined to inhabit in waters with high concentration of Chl.a and low irradiance of light, while Sinocalanus dorrii in habitats with good light irradiance, low concentration of Chl.a and low seston C/N ratio. Daphnia hyalina peaked in waters with low concentration of Chl.a and better light irradiance as well as high seston C/P ratio, but Bosmina coregoni liked the habitat with high concentration of Chl.a, better light irradiance and low seston C/P ratio. In general, food factors explained 19.4% of the total variation in crustacean zooplankton community, and physicochemical factors explained 18.0%, while 62.6% were left unexplained, suggesting that there are other important factors that are not involved in the analysis.