Zooplankton community structure from tropical temporary ponds during a flood period

Many ways of measuring ecosystem biodiversity have been used. Besides taxonomic diversity, the functional diversity approach is considered highly predictive of the structure of biological communities and ecosystem processes. Temporary aquatic ecosystems have a great evolutionary and ecological importance, as they are very endemic places with rare species, often endangered by local extinction. The objective of this study was to describe the structure of the zooplankton community of eight Brazilian temporary ponds during the flood period. The organism collections and measures of environmental variables were carried out from 01/31 to 02/02/2017. As they are small and ephemeral environments, with very peculiar characteristics, both the taxonomic diversity (27 taxa) and the functional one were relatively low, suggesting convergence of the functional characteristics of the species. The zooplankton community was divided into five functional groups and the most significant functional attributes in the grouping of the species were habitat, trophic group and food habit. The functional groups were similar to the taxonomic groupings, except for raptorial carnivorous (Copepoda Cyclopoida and one Rotifera) that comprised the same functional group. In terms of biomass, two species of the Anostraca of the genus Dendrocephalus far exceeded the other groups. It was shown that the presence of these large Branchiopoda has an impact on the composition and numerical density of the zooplankton community, particularly the Cladocera, possibly due to niche overlap. (AU)