Spatial distribution of aquatic Oligochaeta in Ilha Grande National Park, Brazil

Abstract

Ilha Grande National Park is an important conservation unit localized in the Southern part of the upper Paraná river floodplain (Brazil) that includes diverse aquatic environments. Oligochaeta (Annelida) is a large group of invertebrates, with several small specimens inhabiting almost every possible niche at most freshwater ecosystem. The goal of the present study was to examine the spatial variation of Oligochaeta community in five floodplain lakes from the Ilha Grande National Park and relate the distribution with abiotic variables. Samples were taken at five sampling stations using a modified Petersen grab. Thirteen species of Oligochaeta belonging to two families Naididae and Tubificidae were recorded. Different patterns of richness and abiotic factors were identified among the lakes located in the island and at the margin of Paraná river. The different patterns of granulometric texture affected directly the distribution of the Oligochaeta assemblage of theses environments. The results of this study permit to infer that the Oligochaeta assemblage, in preserved areas, present a higher richness in relation to long term studies with more frequent samplings. We concluded that Ilha Grande National Park contributes for the preservation of benthic invertebrates.

Oligochaeta (Annelida: Clitellata) in the Juruena River, MT, Brazil: species indicators of substrate types

“…Distribution: Paraná: Patos Lake and Ivinhema River (Montanholi-Martins & Takeda 2001); in the Paraná River (Montanholi- Martins & Takeda, 1999); in different floodplain habitats of the Paraná River , in several reservoirs in the state of Paraná (Moretto et al 2013); in the Paraná River, in the Ilha Grande National Park, between the states of Mato Grosso do Sul and Paraná (Ragonha et al 2013); in tributaries of the Paraná River ; in Ivinhema River and Baía River (Behrend et al 2009) and Iguaçu River (Behrend et al 2012). São Paulo: marginal lagoon of the Mogi-Guaçu River (Alves & Strixino 2000, 2003.…”

“…Distribution: São Paulo: in streams (City of São Paulo) and Rio Claro by Marcus (1943), associated with gastropods (Gorni & Alves, 2006), associated with submerged macrophytes ; associated with the sponge Metania spinata (Gorni, Alves, 2008a) and in urban impacted streams (Sanches et al 2016). Paraná: associated with the macrophytes Hydrilla verticillata and Egeria najas collected in the Paraná River and the Leopoldo Backwater (Behrend et al 2013), in the Iguaçu River (Behrend et al 2012) and the Paraná River in the Ilha Grande National Park, between the states of Mato Grosso do Sul and Paraná (Ragonha et al 2013); in different floodplain habitats of the Paraná River ; in tributaries of the Paraná River ; in Baía River in artificial substrates (Fujita et al 2015) and Ivinhema and Baía rivers (Behrend et al, 2009). Minas Gerais: associated with decomposing leaves of Eichhornia azurea in Manacás Lake (Martins et al 2011).…”

Factors affecting assemblage attributes of freshwater Oligochaeta in Neotropical shallow floodplain lakes

“…A. piguetti was dominant in different environments, where occurred high levels of oxygen (e.g., Osmar and Clara lakes) which, similarly to P. americana, demonstrates the environmental plasticity of the species. In recent years, A. piguetti has become more frequent in several floodplain environments (Petsch et al, 2013;Ragonha et al, 2013;. The ability of this species to occur in habitats with very different conditions may be an indication of high environmental tolerance, and these characteristics may have favored the increase of its occurrence throughout the floodplain in the last decades.…”

Does richness of Oligochaeta (Annelida) follows a linear distribution with habitat structural heterogeneity in aquatic sediments?

“…Pristina americana is related with high values of organic matter, mud and low oxygen conditions (Montanholi-Martins and Takeda, 1999), thus explaining why this species was only recorded in lentic environments and littoral regions. The species Aulodrilus pigueti is generalist and adapted to a variety of environments and habitats (Behrend et al, 2009;Ragonha et al, ) and was registered in the three subsystems and in all types of environments. Although these species dominated the referred habitats the heterogeneity in these habitats favored the colonization of other species rarely recorded, such as Dero (Dero) digitata, Dero (Dero) pectinata, Dero (Dero) sawayai, Dero (Aulophorus) borelli, Pristina aequiseta and Pristina osborni and these results corroborate with studies developed by Rae (2004) and Arakaki and Tokeshi (2005) where habitats with higher heterogeneity of sediment showed higher local diversity of zoobenthos.…”

“…Many species of Oligochaeta have direct relation with the size of the particles, thus differences in granulometric composition of sediment may influence the richness. In general, the sediments of aquatic ecosystems may be composed by pebbles, granules, very coarse sandy, coarse sandy, medium sandy, fine sand and very fine sandy accord to the habitat (Ezcurra de Drago et al, 2005;Behrend et al, 2009;Ragonha et al, 2013). Another factor that highly influences the richness of Oligochaeta are the different compositions of organic matter that are food for these annelids, and accordance the species can feed from coarse particulate organic matter or extremely small (Marchese, 1987;Marchese et al, 2002;Behrend et al, 2009).…”