Distribution of the cladoceran Bosmina huaronensis Delachaux, 1918 and niche differentiation among populations from different biogeographic regions

Described from a high-altitude lake in Peru, Bosmina huaronensis Delachaux, 1918 has been recorded in diverse kinds of water bodies in South and North America, suggesting that this species has high environmental tolerance and a wide niche breadth. The present study surveyed the occurrence records of B. huaronensis from 55 localities and, using multivariate analysis, investigated the niche differentiation among populations from different biogeographic regions, based on altitude and seven climatic variables. The first two principal components (PC) explained 73% of the overall variance. PC1 was related to annual mean temperature, precipitation of driest quarter, and annual precipitation. PC2 was related to temperature seasonality and precipitation of wettest quarter. The PCA diagram showed three population groups, occupying different climate niches: (1) tropical highlands; (2) Neotropical lowlands; (3) temperate zones of both hemispheres. These results point to the need for further evaluation of these populations under morphological, genetic and ecological aspects.

Bibliographic Details

Main Author:	Elmoor-Loureiro,Lourdes M. A.
Format:	Digital revista
Language:	English
Published:	Sociedade Brasileira de Carcinologia 2013
Online Access:	http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0104-64972013000200001
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!