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The zooplankton of tropical streams: is it determinism or stochasticity that drives the spatial and temporal patterns in community structure?

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Abstract

The comprehension of the ecological structure and the functioning of natural and/or impacted lotic ecosystems is the purpose of most studies concerning rivers and streams. This study aimed to investigate the main factors influencing the zooplankton community organization in nine impacted tropical streams of three different sub-basins of the Cinzas River basin, Paraná state, Brazil. We tested the hypothesis that macro-factors such as productivity, current velocity, habitat structure, and stream order and stretches (headwater, middle and mouth), are the main factors structuring the zooplankton community in tropical streams. Zooplankton was represented by 101 taxa, mainly testate amoebae, followed by rotifers, cladocerans and copepods. Results showed that the greatest differences in physical and chemical characteristics and those related to zooplankton community structure were observed among the three sub-basins studied. However, we found that these differences were not related to the environmental heterogeneity, but were rather influenced mainly by spatial factors related to stochasticity in the structuring of planktonic communities. Thus, our results suggest that connectivity between environments within the same sub-basin, associated with random processes driven by dispersal, may determine the existence or not of spatial patterns, among stream order or stretches, and temporal patterns, between seasons, in the community attributes here analyzed.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Araucária Foundation for funding and granting the scholarship; Nupélia/PEA/UEM and UENP for the logistical support for the execution of this work; the CI trainees of GERCOL/LaMoCEQ for the help during the collections. We also thank to Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for research scholarships for Lansac-Tôha, F. M, and Bianca Ramos de Meira and support the research developed by Velho, L. F. M., and the Cesumar Institute of Science, Technology, and Innovation (ICETI) for granted the researcher Velho, L. F. M. On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Grupo de Pesquisa em Ecologia, Recursos Naturais e Limnologia/Laboratório de Monitoramento e Ecologia de Ecossistemas Aquáticos - GERCOL/LaMoCEQ, Universidade Estadual do Norte do Paraná, Cornélio Procópio, PR, Brazil

    Carlos Eduardo Gonçalves Aggio

  2. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia de Ambientes Aquáticos Continentais - PEA. Núcleo de Pesquisa em Limnologia, Ictiologia e Aquicultura - Nupélia, Universidade Estadual de Maringá, PR, Maringá, PR, Brazil

    Felipe Rafael Oliveira, Melissa Progênio, Fernando Miranda Lansac-Tôha & Luiz Felipe Machado Velho

  3. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Tecnologias Limpas (PPGTL), Universidade Cesumar-UniCesumar, Av. Guedner, 1610, Maringá, PR, 87050-900, Brazil

    José Roberto Bello & Luiz Felipe Machado Velho

  4. ICETI - Instituto Cesumar de Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação, Av. Guedner, 1610, Maringá, PR, 87050-900, Brazil

    Luiz Felipe Machado Velho

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  1. Carlos Eduardo Gonçalves Aggio
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Correspondence to Carlos Eduardo Gonçalves Aggio.

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Aggio, C.E.G., Oliveira, F.R., Progênio, M. et al. The zooplankton of tropical streams: is it determinism or stochasticity that drives the spatial and temporal patterns in community structure?. COMMUNITY ECOLOGY 23, 219–229 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42974-022-00099-2

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