A guide to the identification of subfossil non-chydorid Cladocera (Crustacea: Branchiopoda) from lake sediments of Central America and the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico: part I

Abstract

Cladocera (Crustacea: Branchiopoda) quickly respond to changes in environmental conditions and their remains are usually found in large amounts in lacustrine sediments, which make them an important biological proxy in paleolimnological studies. Variations in species composition have been used to infer paleo-climate and paleo-environmental variables including lake depth, eutrophication, and deforestation. However, despite their advantages as bioindicators in the study of past conditions, they are underutilized in paleolimnological research in Central America due to limited knowledge about their diversity and the morphological differences between the subfossil remains of different taxa. In order to address this issue, we described and analyzed cladoceran remains from 56 waterbodies located in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. Here, we provide a description of the remains from 10 different taxa that belong to the Sididae, Bosminidae, Daphniidae, Macrothricidae, and Ilyocryptidae families. Keywords Non-chydorid Cladocera Á Subfossil remains Á Guide Á Paleolimnology Á Central America Á Yucatan Peninsula

DNA Barcodes Applied to a Rapid Baseline Construction in Biodiversity Monitoring for the Conservation of Aquatic Ecosystems in the Sian Ka’an Reserve (Mexico) and Adjacent Areas

“…Although scarce, Sminov and Elías-Gutiérrez [41] found eight cladoceran genera after a survey in sediments from 25 systems in Yucatan. For example, recent studies on 56 systems from Mexico and Central America [45,46] found only three taxa in five out of 19 systems located in the Yucatan Peninsula. These numbers indicate, as Smirnov & Elías-Gutiérrez [41] suggested, that cladocerans preference for littoral areas and their rapid decomposition in the bottom mud impedes preservation.…”

Evidence of large water-level variations found in deltaic sediments of a tropical deep lake in the karst mountains of the Lacandon forest, Mexico

“…was especially abundant in the intraclast sample as well. Specimens of this taxon are generally found in the pelagic zone of deeper lakes, however, Wojewódka et al (2016Wojewódka et al ( , 2020a reports this genus also in much shallower waterbodies (max. depth of approximately 2 m).…”

Imprints of the Little Ice Age and the severe earthquake of AD 2001 on the aquatic ecosystem of a tropical maar lake in El Salvador

“…Three to four slides (0.1 cm 3 each) were analysed for each sample at 100×, 200× and 400× magnification. Identification was made following Wojewódka et al (2020aWojewódka et al ( , 2020b. The most common cladoceran remains, such as head shield, shell, postabdomen were identified, and at least 70 individuals were counted for each sample (Kurek et al, 2010).…”