Biodiversity of zooplankton communities in the Upper Paraná River floodplain: interannual variation from long-term studies

Abstract

We investigated the effect of interannual variation of hydrosedimentological regime and connectivity on the zooplankton biodiversity in the Upper Paraná River floodplain. Zooplankton samplings were undertaken between 2000 and 2007, in different environments of the floodplain, including connected and isolated floodplain lakes, backwaters, rivers and channels. The zooplankton included 541 species. Rotifers showed the highest species richness and abundance. Among the zooplankton species, 71 represent new occurrence records for the floodplain. The species accumulation curve showed a continuous increase in gamma diversity, demonstrating the importance of long-term research for accurate knowledge of biodiversity in heterogeneous and dynamic ecosystems, such as the floodplains. Interannual beta diversity among studied years indicated a lesser alteration in community composition in 2001, when a long limnophase period was observed. In most of the environments, the highest species richness values were related to the greatest flooding amplitudes. Flooding amplitude, which is associated with connectivity, favors faunal exchange amongst the environments and between the pelagic and littoral zones. This explains the occurrence of both planktonic and non-planktonic species within the community. On the other hand, mean zooplankton abundance values were higher when a long isolation period occurred. Differences between the potamophase and limnophase amplitude associated with connectivity among the environments were the most important factors for the structure and dynamics of the zooplankton community in the Upper Paraná River floodplain.

Effect of daily variation on the seasonality of testate amoebae community structure in different environments of a Neotropical floodplain

“…Numerous studies have shown that the presence of these families is frequently recorded in freshwater environments (Green, 1975;Dabés, 1995;Landa and Mourguês-Schurter, 2000), particularly in the Upper Paraná River basin (Lansac-Tôha et al, 2004Alves et al, 2010Alves et al, , 2012Arrieira et al, 2015).…”

“…Studies carried out on the Paraná (Bonecker et al, 2005;Lansac-Tôha et al, 2009;Dias et al, 2014), Pantanal (Fantin-Cruz et al, 2010), and Amazon (Carvalho, 1983;Bozelli, 1994;Hardy et al, 1994) floodplain have shown that the structure of the zooplankton community changes with variations in physical and chemical attributes of water during the high-water period. Floodplains are characterised by high environmental heterogeneity, including lotic, semilotic, and lentic environments.…”

Novel Diversity of Deeply Branching Holomycota and Unicellular Holozoans Revealed by Metabarcoding in Middle Paraná River, Argentina

“…We chose the Middle Paraná for several reasons. First, it is less studied than the Upper Paraná River (Train and Rodrigues, 1997;Agostinho et al, 2004a,b;Lansac-Tôha et al, 2009;Roberto et al, 2009). Second, the Bermejo River, one of the main tributaries to the Middle Paraná in its origin, supplies 50-70% of the dissolved solids (Devercelli, 2006), which can be a decisive factor for determining the composition of the protist community.…”

Factors that drive zooplankton diversity in Neo-Tropical Savannah shallow lakes

“…fish and macroinvertebrates) and play a key role in cycling of organic materials in an aquatic ecosystem (Kozlowsky-Suzuki & Bozelli, 2002;Matsumura-Tundisi & Tundisi, 2005;Norlin et al, 2006). Studies has been performed in different time intervals, as the interannual (Lansac-Tôha et al, 2009), monthly (Ortega-Mayagoitia et al, 2000Fantin-Cruz et al, 2010), and/or weekly variation cycle (Chittapun et al, 2009), derived from the different sampling frequencies of the zooplankton in various types of wetlands (Bottrell et al, 1976;Guseska et al, 2012). The zooplankton species also positivamente com macrófitas aquáticas (devido ao aumento de nichos e refúgio), enquanto que lagos com maior proximidade geográfica aumentou a similaridade na composição das espécies, e diminuindo a diversidade de β. Conclusões: Os processos determinísticos (teoria do nicho), por haver muitas espécies com diferentes requisitos ecológicos, apresentaram respostas diferentes aos gradientes ambientais e foram responsáveis por aumento da diversidade em sistemas lêntico mais heterogênios.…”

“…In Brazil, some zooplankton studies have been done in lakes from Amazon in the northern region (Bozelli, 1992;Hardy, 1992), São Francisco river basin in the northeastern region (López & Sampaio, 2000), Pantanal in the central region (Fantin-Cruz et al, 2011) and Paraná river in the southern region (Lansac-Tôha et al, 2009). Thus, due to high environmental heterogeneity we could get a different composition and diversity in the zooplankton communities (Carvalho et al, 2001), along this gradient.…”