Phytoplankton colonization patterns and the abundance of suitable aquatic ecosystems: the importance of nestedness among freshwaters. 17th Workshop of the International Association of Phytoplankton Taxonomy and Ecology (IAP). Kastoria, Greece, 14-21 September 2014. Book of Abstracts: 34

Species-poor and species-rich phytoplankton assemblages in two Sicilian water bodies (Lake Pergusa and Lake Biviere di Gela) were compared to test the hypothesis that the number of colonization events and the successful establishment of a new species in an aquatic ecosystem may depend on the number and nestedness of water bodies in a given area. The two ecosystems are both natural, shallow lakes and they are protected sites hosting a rich avifauna. Both the lakes had quite high conductivity values (> 2,500 μS cm-1) and both were re-filled with fresh waters (< 400 μS cm-1) after they had disappeared because of the over-exploitation of their main inflows to fulfill agriculture water-demand. H…