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Interannual variation in filling season affects zooplankton diversity in Mediterranean temporary ponds

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Abstract

In Mediterranean temporary ponds, the timing of annual flooding is highly variable and depends on heavy seasonal rains. Ponds can flood in the autumn, winter, or spring, and thus the environmental conditions faced by emerging zooplankton can be very different. We performed an experiment in a climatic chamber where we simulated annual variation in natural temperature and light conditions to study how differences in pond-filling season affected zooplankton assemblage composition. We sampled sediments from a temporary pond and placed them in aquariums that were filled with water during three different seasons: autumn (October), winter (January), and spring (March). Zooplankton abundance, species richness, diversity, and assemblage composition differed significantly among treatments, and post-inundation temperature and pH appeared to be the main drivers of these differences. Diversity was highest in the winter treatment. It was lower in the autumn treatment and the spring treatment, and no indicator species were present in the latter. Our results suggest that interannual variability in initial inundation conditions favours the emergence of different species and thus contributes to high species richness in the egg bank. However, climate change and/or groundwater drawdown could delay pond flooding, impoverishing the zooplankton assemblage in the long term.

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Acknowledgements

MF is grateful for her postdoctoral contracts, which were funded by the University of Alcala and the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. The field resources, climatic chambers, and laboratory facilities were provided by Doñana ICTS-RBD. We are grateful to Jessica Pearce for her professional language editing services.

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  1. M. Florencio

    Present address: Departamento de Ecología, Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Cambio Global (CIBC-UAM), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Estación Biológica de Doñana, Avda. Américo Vespucio 26, 41092, Seville, Spain

    M. Florencio, R. Fernández-Zamudio, Mayca Lozano & C. Díaz-Paniagua

  2. Department of Life Sciences, University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, 28805, Madrid, Spain

    M. Florencio

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  1. M. Florencio
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Florencio, M., Fernández-Zamudio, R., Lozano, M. et al. Interannual variation in filling season affects zooplankton diversity in Mediterranean temporary ponds. Hydrobiologia 847, 1195–1205 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-019-04163-3

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