Zooplankton structure may serve as predictor of a multiplicity of environmental conditions, including long-scale distance between shallow water bodies. Two different categories of zooplankton indices (1/ biocoenotic indices, including dominating species; 2/ trait-based approaches, including ecological groups: littoral vs. pelagic community and functional feeding groups) were compared in small water bodies of two regions of Europe (1/ Northern water bodies (N-WB): Poland, and 2/ Southern water bodies (S-WB): Croatia). We hypothesized that latitudinal variation between these regions will result in distinguishing specific environmental factors that in turn affect the structure of zooplankton communities. In order to avoid weather extremes in both countries, we focused our research on less frequently investigated periods of the year; during the unvegetated and mild-temperature seasons (spring and autumn). Despite well pronounced differences in some abiotic characteristics of water between both regions (higher chlorophyll a and phosphorus contents in N-WB compared to better oxygenated waters and higher water transparency in S-WB) we observed rather uniform pattern with respect to zooplankton trait-based indices in N-WB and S-WB. This may have been caused by poor habitat heterogeneity due to macrophyte absence (spring) or decaying state (autumn) and poor food supply during the spring/autumn seasons. Planktonic and detrivorous rotifers (e.g. from genera Keratella and Brachionus) predominated in both countries. Ecological and trophic functional traits were mostly determined by the morphometric and trophic properties. Irrespective of latitudinal variation, water transparency emerged as a significant factor, negatively affecting zooplankton abundance, especially the dominating detrivorous rotifers, and positively littoral zooplankton. Moreover, an increase in water area, related to higher contents of nutrients and food resources, supported a higher abundance of the majority of zooplankton feeding guilds. Our results suggested that only at the level of taxa the distinctiveness between the two European regions, northern and southern, was clear. Apart from taxa dominating in both countries (Keratella cochlearis, Bosmina longirostris), Polyarthra spp. and Eudiaptomus gracilis dominated exclusively in Croatia and Cyclops sp. in Poland during the unvegetated and temperature-transitional seasons. This indicates that only the taxonomic approach, referring to certain dominating species, was a sensitive tool. Functional trait-based approaches, despite providing relevant information on the quality of aquatic ecosystems, are not sufficiently sensitive in identification of latitudinal variation of zooplankton in the spring/autumn season.

浮游动物的结构可以作为多种环境条件的预测指标，包括浅水体之间的长距离距离。两种不同种类的浮游动物指数（1 /生物共生指数，包括优势物种； 2 /基于特征的方法，包括生态群：沿海与自然。在欧洲两个地区的小水体（1 /北部水体（N-WB）：波兰和2 /南部水体（S-WB）：克罗地亚）中比较了浮游鱼类群落和功能性摄食组。我们假设这些区域之间的纬度变化将导致区分特定的环境因素，进而影响浮游动物群落的结构。为了避免这两个国家的极端天气，我们将研究重点放在一年中调查频率较低的时期。在无植被和温和的季节（春季和秋季）。尽管两个区域之间水的某些非生物特征存在明显差异（较高的叶绿素a相比于更好的含氧水和更高的水透明性，N-WB中的磷含量）我们观察到N-WB和S-WB中基于浮游动物性状指标的模式相当均匀。这可能是由于缺乏大型植物（春季）或腐烂状态（秋季）以及春季/秋季的食物供应不足而造成的栖息地异质性差所致。浮游类和有害类轮虫（例如，Keratella和Brachionus属））在两个国家都占主导地位。生态和营养功能性状主要由形态和营养特性决定。无论纬度如何变化，水的透明性都是一个重要因素，对浮游动物的丰度产生负面影响，尤其是主要的有害轮虫，而沿岸浮游动物则呈阳性。此外，与养分和食物资源含量更高有关的水域面积增加，支持了大多数浮游动物饲养协会的大量繁殖。我们的结果表明，仅在分类单元级别上，两个欧洲区域（北部和南部）之间的区别才很明显。除了在两个国家都占主导地位的分类单元（Keretella cochlearis，Bosmina longirostris），Polyarthra spp。和Eudiaptomus gracilis仅在克罗地亚和独眼巨人sp。中占主导地位。在波兰无植被和温度转变的季节。这表明只有涉及某些主要物种的分类方法才是敏感的工具。基于功能性状的方法尽管提供了有关水生生态系统质量的相关信息，但在识别春季/秋季的浮游动物的纬度变化方面不够敏感。