Abstract
We examined species richness separately for cladocerans and ostracods in 52 temporary pools in a small geographical area, relating species richness with habitat traits using multiple regressions. Habitat traits considered included surface area, water depth, permanence and sediment depth. Permanence was an important predictor of species richness of both cladocerans and ostracods. Additionally, variation in ostracod species richness was significantly explained by water depth (negative relationship) and sediment depth (positive relationship). Surface area was not a statistically significant factor in any of our analyses. The importance of permanence supports the hypothesis that extinction due to pool drying is a major driving force behind the structuring of microcrustacean communities in temporary pools.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 125-130 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Hydrobiologia |
| Volume | 525 |
| Issue number | 1-3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 2004 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank Moshe Kiflawi for field assistance and Reuven Ortal for fruitful discussion. This study was supported by a Vataat Postdoctoral Fellowship awarded to A. Eitam, and US-Israel Binational Science Foundation grant 98-390 awarded to L. Blaustein and M. Mangel.
Keywords
- Cladocera
- Ostracoda
- hydroperiod
- species-area
- temporary ponds
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Aquatic Science
