Authors: Margarita Florencio Carmen DíazPaniagua Laura Serrano
Publish Date: 2015/10/01
Volume: 774, Issue: 1, Pages: 109-121
Abstract
Temporary ponds are unpredictable habitats that exhibit inundation periods of variable duration hydroperiods We hypothesised that changes in microcrustacean assemblages namely among ponds spatial variation and within ponds at a monthly scale intraannual variation would differ according to hydroperiod length We found that the microcrustacean assemblages of the study ponds demonstrated distinctive individual patterns that were dependent on monthly variation During pond filling species turnover was particularly high in shorthydroperiod ponds probably due to the fast hatching of the initial pool of species which seemed to determine subsequent species succession Some of the longhydroperiod ponds were able to hold water during the summer which meant that they could harbour adult microcrustaceans in the early autumn in contrast to the recently filled ponds species turnover could thus increase at the onset of the inundation cycle In the summer species turnover decreased while the contribution of nestedness to βdiversity increased because only a few tolerant species were able to withstand the poor water quality found in drying ponds We suggest that preserving the broader hydroperiod gradient by protecting ponds with different environmental conditions within each hydroperiod category would safeguard the ecological dynamics of the microcrustacean assemblages found in temporary pondsWe are grateful to Andres Baselga for his useful statistical comments to Jessica Pearce for the English language revision and to two anonymous referees for their comments which helped improve a previous version of this manuscript The project was funded by Organismo Autónomo de Parques NacionalesMinisterio Agricultura Alimentación y Medio Ambiente 158/2010 The current MF’s grant is supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico—CNPq 401045/20145 program Ciência sem Fronteiras
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