Biogeographic patterns of planktonic and meiobenthic fauna diversity in inland waters of the Russian Arctic

Abstract

1. Broad-scale assessment of biodiversity is needed for detection of future changes across substantial regions of the Arctic. Presently, there are large data and information gaps in species composition and richness of the freshwater planktonic and meiobenthos communities of the Russian Arctic. Analysis of these data is very important for identifying the spatial distribution and temporal changes in species richness and diversity of rotifers, cladocerans, and copepods in the continental Russian Arctic.2. We investigated biogeographic patterns of freshwater plankton and meiobenthos from c. 67° to 73°N by analysing data over the period 1960-2017. These data include information on the composition of rotifers, cladocerans, and copepods obtained from planktonic and meiobenthic samples, as well as from subfossil remains in bottom sediments of seven regions from the Kola Peninsula in the west, to the Indigirka River Basin (east Siberia) in the east. 3. Total richness included 175 species comprised of 49 rotifer genera, 81 species from 40 cladoceran genera, and 101 species from 42 genera of calanoid, cyclopoid, and harpacticoid copepods. Longitudinal trends in rotifer and micro-crustacean diversity were revealed by change in species composition from Europe to eastern Siberia. The most common and widespread species were 19 ubiquitous taxa that included Kellicottia longispina (Rotifera), Chydorus sphaericus s. lat. (Cladocera), Heterocope borealis, Acanthocyclops vernalis, and Moraria duthiei (Copepoda). The highest number of rare species was recorded in the well-studied region of the Bolshezemelskaya tundra and in the Putorana Plateau.4. The total number of copepod and rotifer species in both Arctic lakes and ponds tended to increase with latitude. Relative species richness of copepods was positively associated with waterbody area, elevation, and precipitation, while relative species richness of cladocerans was positively related to temperature. This result is consistent with known thermophilic characteristics of cladocerans and the cold tolerance properties of copepods, with the former being dominant in shallow, warmer waterbodies of some western regions, and the latter being dominant in This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Data on taxa composition of freshwater zooplankton and meiobenthos across Arctic regions of Russia

“… The data provide information on the current state of biodiversity and species richness in fresh waters of seven Arctic regions of Russia and can serve as the basis for monitoring these environments. They are related to the research article: [1] (Fefilova et al. ), and are important for better understanding of the analyses performed in [1] .…”

“…They are related to the research article: [1] (Fefilova et al. ), and are important for better understanding of the analyses performed in [1] . The data are valuable for scientists who study biogeography of freshwater micro-invertebrates.…”

“…Each column of Table 1 corresponds to one region: the Kola Peninsula (Region I), the Pechora River Delta (Region II), the Bolshezemelskaya tundra (Region III), the Polar Ural (Region IV), the Putorana Plateau (Region V), the Lena River Delta (Region VI), and the Indigirka River Basin (Region VII). The detailed analysis of the list of taxa is given in [1] , where it is called “Dataset 2: Zooplankton and Meiofauna across Arctic Regions of Russia”. Here we publish this Dataset for the first time (Table 1).…”

“…To supplement the list, we used relevant literature with periods of research from the 1960s to the 2010s. The list is almost identical to “Dataset 2: Zooplankton and Meiofauna across Arctic Regions of Russia”, which was analyzed but not published in [1] . The detailed analysis of this list revealed the specific composition of the aquatic fauna associated with the climatic and geographical factors [1] .…”

“…The list is almost identical to “Dataset 2: Zooplankton and Meiofauna across Arctic Regions of Russia”, which was analyzed but not published in [1] . The detailed analysis of this list revealed the specific composition of the aquatic fauna associated with the climatic and geographical factors [1] . The data provide information on the current state of biodiversity and species richness in Arctic fresh waters and can serve as the basis for monitoring these environments and predicting how they are likely to change in the future.…”