Distinctive aspects of the zooplankton of large lakes in Australasia, Antarctica and South America

Abstract

Not only has the degree of species-level cosmopolitanism amongst zooplanktonic organisms been considerably overestimated, but differences between the different classical biogeographic regions (established from terrestrial studies) occur at supra-specific levels as high as family or even suborder. The Centropagidae, and particularly the genus Boeckella, are found in New Zealand, most of Australia, southern and high altitude regions of South America, and around the periphery of Antarctica. The biogeography and ecology of this family is discussed in detail. Most predaceous families of Cladocera are entirely absent from the Australian and Neotropical regions. The genus Daphniopsis occurs in salt lakes in Australia and South America and in freshwater lakes in Antarctica. In southern Australia numerous species of ostracod have colonized the limnetic region of salt lakes, and the largest of these prey on species of Calamoecia, Daphniopsis and small ostracods. Chaoboridae are absent from New Zealand as, too, are obligate planktivorous fish. The Chilean flamingo, Phoenicopterus chilensis, and Wilson's phalarope, Phalaropus tricolor, are significant predators on Boeckella poopoensis in salt lakes on the Andean Altiplano and elsewhere in South America.

Global diversity of copepods (Crustacea: Copepoda) in freshwater

“…They are the most important calanoids in continental waters in Australasia. Species of the Boeckella-group (comprising at least those approximately 70 species referred to Boeckella, Hemiboeckella and Calamoecia) occur in fresh and athalassic saline waters in Australia, New Zealand, southern and high-altitude South America and New Caledonia (Bayly, 1995;Defaye, 1998;Dussart & Defaye, 2002). A single species, B. triarticulata (Fig.…”

Finding of Pleuroxus smirnovi sp. nov. from the Pamir Region Revealed Today's Imperfect State of Systematics and Biogeography of the Chydorinae (Cladocera: Chydoridae)

“…Earlier similar distributional pattern (Australia plus Tibet -Tien Shan -Pamirs) was revealed for the genus Daphniopsis SARS, 1903 (family Daphniidae) (SERVENTY, 1929;BAYLY, 1995). But then D. ephemeralis SCHWARTZ et HEBERT, 1985 was found in North America.…”

First New Zealand records of three non‐indigenous Zooplankton species:Skistodiaptomus pallidus, Sinodiaptomus valkanovi,andDaphnia dentifera

“…As a result, species are generally restricted to distinct geographical areas (e.g., Ranga Reddy 1994;Jamieson 1998). Probably the strongest disjunction is that of the families Centropagidae and Diaptomidae, which are almost mutually exclusive (Bayly 1992(Bayly , 1995. Present-day distribution of the Centropagidae coincides with the former landmass of Gondwana (e.g., New Zealand, Australia, the Antarctic Peninsula, and southern South America), and this familial distribution thus appears to have been stable for many millions of years (Bayly 1992(Bayly , 1995.…”

“…Probably the strongest disjunction is that of the families Centropagidae and Diaptomidae, which are almost mutually exclusive (Bayly 1992(Bayly , 1995. Present-day distribution of the Centropagidae coincides with the former landmass of Gondwana (e.g., New Zealand, Australia, the Antarctic Peninsula, and southern South America), and this familial distribution thus appears to have been stable for many millions of years (Bayly 1992(Bayly , 1995. In contrast, diaptomids occur in most of the remaining regions of the world, with overlap only in northern Australia and northern SouthAmerica (Bayly 1992).…”