Potential heterogeneity in crustacean zooplankton assemblages in southern chilean saline lakes

Abstract

The Chilean saline lakes are distributed mainly in the Atacama desert in northern Chile and the southern Patagonian plains. The scarce studies are restricted mainly to northern Chilean saline lakes, and these revealed that the main component in these ecosystems are the halophylic copepod Boeckella poopoensis Marsh 1906, or the brine shrimp Artemia franciscana (Kellog, 1906), and both species do not coexist. The present study consisted of field observations in zooplankton assemblages in southern Chilean saline lakes (51-53 ºS). These first observations revealed three different patterns, one saline lake only with A. persimilis (Piccinelli and Prosdocimi, 1968), a second lake only with B. poopensis, and a third lake with A. persimilis, B. poopoensis and unidentified harpacticoid copepod. These results are different in comparison with the observations in the literature that described the non-coexistence between B. poopoensis with brine shrimps. Ecological and biogeographical topics were discussed.

A glimpse to Laguna de los Cisnes, a field laboratory and natural monument in the Chilean Patagonia

“…These copepods have been also reported in Laguna Amarga (De los Ríos & Gajardo, 2010), but tend to bloom in shallow freshwater ponds in the area (De los Ríos, 2005). The Artemia-calanoid coexistence is modulated by salinity fluctuation, but few systematic accounts on water conditions and zooplankton abundance are available for this lagoon.…”

Living at the Frontiers of Life: Extremophiles in Chile and Their Potential for Bioremediation

“…Other saline ecosystems are also located in the Central Region and the Southern Patagonia ( De Los Rios-Escalante and Gajardo, 2010 ; Plominsky et al, 2014 ). Cáhuil Lagoon is a saline ecosystem located at the coast close to Pichilemu in Central Chile (Figure 1 ).…”

Review: Diapause in Crustaceans and its Ecological and Biogeographical Implications: An Example from Patagonian Ephemeral Pools

“…Both Anostracan families Artemiidae and Branchinectidae are present in saline and freshwater lakes and pools respectively (De los Ríos-Escalante, 2010). The Artemiidae is represented by the species Artemia persimilis (Piccinelli & Prosdocimi, 1968) , found in two saline lakes in the Magallanes region, Laguna Amarga (51° 00' S: 72° 48' W) in Torres del Paine National Park and Laguna de los Cisnes (53° 14' S: 70° 23' W) close to Porvenir on Tierra del Fuego (De los Ríos-Escalante & Gajardo, 2010). The population in Laguna Amarga is permanent and practically exclusive to the zooplankton of this habitat (Campos et al, 1996), whereas the populapaso de procesos de especiación.…”

“…tion in Laguna de los Cisnes depends on variations in salinity-it can be present at high salinity levels, but if the salinity decreases, the population disappears (De los Ríos-Escalante & Gajardo, 2010). For Branchinectidae, the species Branchinecta gaini and B. granulosa are reported from the Magallanes region at 53 and 51° S respectively, B. vuriloche from the Aysen region at 45° S (Rogers et al 2008) and juvenile specimens in coastal ponds in the Araucania region at 38° S (De los .…”