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Temporal dynamics of Chironomid (Diptera) diversity under flood–drought pulses in a shallow tropical floodplain lake

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Abstract

The water-level regime is a major determinant of the community structure in river-floodplain systems. Chironomidae is a highly diverse insect family that plays a key role in the trophic structure and functioning of floodplain systems. However, we know little about how water-level oscillations affect the chironomid structure. Using a 9-year database, we investigated how the richness, density, and temporal β-diversity of chironomid larvae are affected by water-level oscillations and environmental variables in a tropical lake. We tested the hypotheses that (i) in high-water-level periods, the Chironomidae community is more similar (homogeneous) among sites within the lake; (ii) in low-water-level periods, the Chironomidae community is more variable, and that this is likely because (iii) the importance of environmental filtering is stronger in low-water-level periods than in high-water-level periods. We found a hump-shaped relationship between chironomid richness and density with water level, and a monotonic negative relationship between chironomid β-diversity and water level over the years. Chironomidae composition was structured by water-level oscillations during the high-water-level period, whereas during the low-water-level period, environmental filtering was the most important structuring factor. In addition, Chironomidae density and richness decreased in high- and low-water-level periods compared to intermediate-water-level periods, and temporal Chironomidae β-diversity increased in low-water-level periods and decreased in high-water-level periods. Our findings are important considering that extreme climatic events tend to increase in frequency and intensity in the future, which may increase the frequency of extreme low- and high-water-level periods in floodplain systems.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the handling Editor Dr. Jamie Kneitel and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments, which improved the first two versions of this manuscript. SPJ thanks to Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) for his Master’s scholarship. DAM thanks to Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) for his PhD scholarship. RPM thanks to CNPq for the constant funding and productivity research grant.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia de Ambientes Aquáticos Continentais (PEA), Departamento de Biologia (DBI), Centro de Ciências Biológicas (CCB), Universidade Estadual de Maringá (UEM) , Maringá, Paraná, Brazil

    Roger P. Mormul, Dieison A. Moi & Alice M. Takeda

  2. Universidade Estadual do Centro Oeste (UNICENTRO), Guarapuava, Paraná, Brazil

    Sidnei Pressinatte-Júnior

  3. Departamento de Hidrobiologia, Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR), São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil

    Gilmar Perbiche-Neves

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  1. Roger P. Mormul
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Mormul, R.P., Moi, D.A., Pressinatte-Júnior, S. et al. Temporal dynamics of Chironomid (Diptera) diversity under flood–drought pulses in a shallow tropical floodplain lake. Limnology 23, 37–48 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10201-021-00668-w

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