Climate change and freshwater zooplankton: what does it boil down to?

Abstract

Recently, major advances in the climatezooplankton interface have been made some of which appeared to receive much attention in a broader audience of ecologists as well. In contrast to the marine realm, however, we still lack a more holistic summary of recent knowledge in freshwater. We discuss climate change-related variation in physical and biological attributes of lakes and running waters, high-order ecological functions, and subsequent alteration in zooplankton abundance, phenology, distribution, body size, community structure, life history parameters, and behavior by focusing on community level responses. The adequacy of large-scale climatic indices in ecology has received considerable support and provided a framework for the interpretation of community and species level responses in freshwater zooplankton. Modeling perspectives deserve particular consideration, since this promising stream of ecology is of particular applicability in climate change research owing to the inherently predictive nature of this field. In the future, ecologists should expand their research on species beyond daphnids, should address questions as to how different intrinsic and extrinsic drivers interact, should move beyond correlative approaches toward more mechanistic explanations, and last but not least, should facilitate transfer of biological data both across space and time.

Climate change and plankton phenology in freshwater: current trends and future commitments

“…Recent reviews are confined to the impact of climate change on zooplankton in general and only briefly discuss phenology (Wojtal-Frankiewicz, 2012;Vadadi-Fülöp et al, 2012). A general finding, what one would expect also, is that species experience an advance in phenology in response to climate warming, but the rate of advancement and the underlying mechanisms vary over species and study sites.…”

Dissimilarity of phytoplankton assemblages in two connected tropical reservoirs: effects of water transportation and environmental filtering

“…The main indirect effect of temperature links with stratification (Lewis, 1983;Boehrer & Schultze, 2008). Water stratification can result in changes to nutrient circulation, increased settlement, vertical profile of pH and dissolved oxygen content, and distribution of zooplankton (Salmaso, 2011;Vadadi-Fülöp et al, 2012). In Gaozhou reservoir, thermal stratification occurred from May to October (especially June to August).…”

Trends in freshwater microcrustaceans studies in Brazil between 1990 and 2014

“…Microcrustaceans are efficient in transferring energy and biomass between producers and consumers and are useful for monitoring water quality (Landa et al, 2007) and climate changes (Richardson, 2008;Vadadi-Fülöp et al, 2012). Copepoda, Ostracoda and Branchiopoda (Cladocera (Diplostrasca), Conchostraca, Notostraca and Anostraca) are the most abundant among microcrustacean groups frequently found in freshwater/inland systems such as rivers, lakes, reservoirs, phytothelmas, and wetlands (Thorp and Covich, 2001) Efforts to increase the awareness of biodiversity in freshwater have been made, such as those published by Hydrobiologia (vol.…”