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Mayfly emergence along an oligotrophic Dinaric karst hydrosystem: spatial and temporal patterns, and species–environment relationship

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Abstract

Mayfly emergence was studied in the Plitvice Lakes National Park (Croatia) monthly over a 2-year period in four habitats (springs, streams, mountainous rivers, tufa barriers) using monthly collections of emergence traps. A total of 12 mayfly taxa were recorded. Almost half of the collected specimens belonged to the genus Baetis Leach, 1815, which was recorded at every site, but we were unable to distinguish between two included species (B. rhodani and B. cf. nubecularis). Other abundant species were Centroptilum luteolum (Müller, 1776), Alainites muticus (Linnaeus, 1758), Habrophlebia lauta Eaton 1884, Paraleptophlebia submarginata (Stephens, 1835), Serratella ignita (Poda, 1761), Ephemera danica Müller, 1764 and Rhithrogena braaschi Jacob, 1974. The mayfly assemblages at all sites were dominated by species typical of the rhithral zone, but there was a shift in species composition along a longitudinal gradient (from 720 to 390 m a.s.l.) from dominance of eucrenal–epirhithral to metarhithral–hyporhithral elements and finally to appearance of metapotamal and littoral elements. Two environmental factors, maximum water temperature and mean pH, had the highest influence on the mayfly assemblages. Emergence mainly occurred between March and November and was related to the elevated water temperature. Emergence patterns of some species were in accordance with their typical Central European emergence patterns (e.g. S. ignita, H. lauta) while some others showed certain discrepancies (e.g. longer emergence period in Rh. braaschi and P. submarginata, one generation emergence in A. muticus and variable emergence patterns between the sites and between the two studied years in C. luteolum). The current study provides a significant contribution to the knowledge of mayfly ecology in karst freshwater habitats which forms a basis for further investigation and monitoring of mayflies in this area.

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Fig. 1

Figure modified from Vilenica et al. (2014)

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Acknowledgements

We thank Prof Mladen Kerovec for the provision of financial support, and Miljenko Ivković, for field assistance, without which this study would not have been possible. We also thank Dr. Adrian Plant for his helpful comments on language style and Miran Katar for his help with the artwork. Thanks to Dr. Ana Previšić, Dr. Helen Barber James and Dr. Jasna Lajtner for their comments and advice. We would also like to thank the reviewers for their useful comments and suggestions that markedly improved this manuscript. This research was conducted as a part of the following project: «Invertebrate taxonomy, ecology and biogeography of Croatian aquatic ecotones» (No. 119-1193080-3076).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Zagreb, Trg Matice hrvatske 12, 44250, Petrinja, Croatia

    Marina Vilenica

  2. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Rooseveltov trg 6, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia

    Marija Ivković & Zlatko Mihaljević

  3. Museum of Zoology, Place de la Riponne 6, 1014, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Michel Sartori

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  1. Marina Vilenica
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  2. Marija Ivković
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  3. Michel Sartori
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  4. Zlatko Mihaljević
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Correspondence to Marina Vilenica.

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Vilenica, M., Ivković, M., Sartori, M. et al. Mayfly emergence along an oligotrophic Dinaric karst hydrosystem: spatial and temporal patterns, and species–environment relationship. Aquat Ecol 51, 417–433 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10452-017-9626-3

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