Habitat diversity and ostracod distribution patterns in Belarus

Abstract

Ostracod diversity and abundance was studied in 10 different types of water bodies of Belarus (bogs, brooks, canals, oxbows, ponds, reservoirs, rivers, springs, shoal of lake and temporary pools). Hydrochemical variables, sediment, and vegetation were analyzed. In total 156 different localities were investigated. Habitat diversity was based mainly upon the closely correlated hydrochemical variables of mineralization (hardness total and carbonate, conductivity, total value of dissolved substances), although bottom, vegetation characteristics and other factors (pH, dissolved oxygen, nutrients) were also significant. The ostracods found included 62 species in 27 genera comprising 8 cosmopolitan, 17 Holarctic, 13 Palearctic species; 21 of these species are known from central and southern Europe and adjacent areas, while 3 are characteristic for eastern Europe. The distribution of freshwater ostracod assemblages reflected the habitat and depended on water body type. Heterogeneous oxbows and temporary pools supported 37 species, while other types of pool maintained only 27-14 species. The population density of different species varied from 0.5 to more than 10 000 ind./m 2 . Indices of local alpha diversity were significantly correlated with the number of species and temperature and were maximal in heterogeneous habitats. The variation of population density was not connected with habitat patterns but appeared to be regulated by the biotic interactions in the community. Habitat diversity, verified by the beta-diversity indices, enabled us to find localities with a similar heterogeneity level and species richness. Beta-diversity values were independent of species number as well as abundance but a significant positive correlation (p < 0.05) was found with temperature, pH and dissolved oxygen. This index probably reflected the general patterns of different localities.

Modifying living space: an experimental study of the influences of vegetation on aquatic invertebrate community structure

“…Many of the taxa collected in this study were cosmopolitan and able to tolerate a broad range of water quality conditions (Ingram et al, 1997), and the high conductivity or turbidity in some treatments was unlikely to represent a threshold to colonization. Similarly, a study examining ostracod distributions in Belarus found that many of the species were well known and widespread, and that distribution patterns were less influenced by abiotic conditions than by biotic interactions (Nagorskaya & Keyser, 2005).…”

“…While physical structure can have a strong influence on aquatic macroinvertebrate community structure, other studies have indicated that other factors may also affect the relative abundance of macroinvertebrates (Therriault & Kolasa, 1999;Ruetz et al, 2002;Nagorskaya & Keyser, 2005;Srivastava, 2006). Community structure may also be influenced by food resources (Campeau et al, 1994;Warren & Spencer, 1996) and water quality (Spieles & Mitsch, 2003;Burdett et al, 2005).…”

Ostrácodos no-marinos de lagos en el altiplano este-centro de México

“…Outside Mexico it has been collected in USA (Forester et al, 2013), Belarus (Nagorskaya, 2002;Nagorskaya, & Keyser, 2005), Europe (Marmonier, & Chatelliers, 1992;Horne, 2007;Szlauer-Lukaszewska, 2012) and in the Arctic (Wetterich, 2008).…”

“…Wetterich (2008) suggests that this species is oligohalophilic. This species has been collected in oxbow lakes, ponds and rivers and shows a preference for sandy and silty substrates (Nagorskaya, & Keyser, 2005). It has been collected among Phragmites australis rushes (Szlauer-Lukaszewska, 2012).…”

Profundal benthic invertebrates in an oligotrophic tropical lake: different strategies for coping with anoxia

“…Ostracods have been reported to colonize a variety of habitats (Nagorskaya and Keyser, 2005), including deep-lake areas (Griffiths et al, 1993), and can tolerate low levels of DO (De Dekker, 2002). C. patzcuaro prefers sediments rich in organic matter and has a high capacity to adapt, and it exhibits broad tolerance to the adverse conditions present by deep-lake areas (Decrouy, 2009).…”