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Environmental significance of freshwater mollusks in the Southern Pampas, Argentina: to what detail can local environments be inferred from mollusk composition?

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Abstract

The aim of the present contribution is to assess whether the abundance of mollusk species in the Southern Pampas (Argentina), an environmentally homogeneous region, reflect the local conditions of water bodies. In order to test this hypothesis, a comprehensive study was conducted in 30 sites regularly distributed across the region. At each site, the abundance of mollusk species was determined, and a series of physico-chemical measurements taken. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Cluster Analysis (CA) were used for the ordination of sampling sites based on the measured environmental variables. In addition, Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) was conducted to explore the relationships between environmental variables and mollusk abundances. Mollusk species were represented by the gastropods Biomphalaria peregrina, Chilina parchappii, Heleobia parchappii, Physa acuta, Pomacea canaliculata, Stenophysa marmorata, Uncancylus concentricus and the bivalve Musculium argentinum. Although aquatic vegetation cover, conductivity, and substrate were among the main parameters influencing mollusk distribution, their effect was insufficient to explain the spatial distribution pattern of the species in a regional scale. It is because the Southern Pampas is a very homogeneous area, and the ranges of these environmental conditions are within the range of ecological tolerance of most of the species represented. Yet, some species resulted good indicators of environmental conditions at local (microhabitat) scale, i.e., particular microhabitats that occur in different water bodies as well. In fact, even distributed in many different water bodies along the Southern Pampas C. parchappii is always linked to lotic environments, and U. concentricus is exclusively restricted to hard substrata. On the other hand, H. parchappii is the only species represented in mesohaline waters and P. acuta appeared to be a good indicator of pollution in the area.

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Acknowledgments

This research is part of the doctoral thesis of E. Tietze at the University of Mar del Plata. Financial support for this study was provided by Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (PICT 16-20706). We gratefully acknowledge Verónica Núñez for helpful comments about physiid snails and Gabriela Hassan for her assistance with statistical analyses. We thank Christian Ituarte for helping us with the taxonomic identification of Musculium argentinum and Gustavo Bernava for chemical analyses. Néstor Ciocco and an anonymous reviewer improved the manuscript with constructive reviews. E. Tietze was funded by the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research of Argentina (CONICET) through a fellowship. Claudio De Francesco is a member of the Scientific Research Career of CONICET.

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  1. CONICET-Centro de Geología de Costas y del Cuaternario, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, CC 722, 7600, Mar del Plata, Argentina

    Eleonor Tietze & Claudio G. De Francesco

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  1. Eleonor Tietze
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  2. Claudio G. De Francesco
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Correspondence to Eleonor Tietze.

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Handling editors: J. Saros & L. Naselli-Flores

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Tietze, E., De Francesco, C.G. Environmental significance of freshwater mollusks in the Southern Pampas, Argentina: to what detail can local environments be inferred from mollusk composition?. Hydrobiologia 641, 133–143 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-009-0072-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-009-0072-7

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