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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Zooplankton communities in doline lakes and pools, in relation to some bathymetric parameters and physical and chemical variables

subject

description

The zooplankton communities from several lakes and pools in three zones of a karstic area in central Spain were studied in spring and early autumn, in relation to morphometric, physical and chemical characteristics of the lakes. Zooplankton diversity was higher in autumn than in spring and it was positively correlated with lake size (area and depth) in spring, but not in early autumn. This effect is partially explained by the sharp zooplankton stratification in deep lakes, in early autumn. Some morphometric characteristics of lake basins were also correlated with the structure of zooplank- ton communities. Principal component analyses (PCA) and Two-Way Indicator Species Analysis (TWINSPAN) performed on zooplankton data and a posterior correlation analysis with the extracted factors and main limnological parameters showed that trophic state in the first place, and mineral- ization in the second place, were the main sources of variance to explain our data. However, the results of these analyses also show that important sources explaining the variance of zooplankton data include some factors not quantified in the standard limnological analysis, but evidently related to lake typology, such as shallowness and type of water feeding and flux.