Bosmina remains in lake sediment as indicators of zooplankton community composition

Abstract

We measured Bosmina spp. mucro and antennule lengths in surface sediment samples from Wisconsin lakes to test whether such measures could be used to reconstruct zooplankton community composition and size structure in paleolimnological studies. Our data set included 58 lakes of various depths, water chemistry, trophic state, macrophyte cover, and zooplankton community composition. We used non-metric multidimensional scaling ordination (NMS) and simple correlation analysis to assess whether mucro and antennule measurements reflect the zooplankton community size structure. Bosmina mucro length (r = 0.727, p < 0.05) and antennule length (r = 0.360, p < 0.05) correlated with the NMS axis, which essentially represents zooplankton community size structure. Bosmina mucro length correlated positively with the abundance of the large-bodied zooplankter Epischura lacustris (r = 0.364, p < 0.01), as well as Diacyclops thomasi (r = 0.256, p < 0.05), and Leptodiaptomus minutus (r = 0.578, p ≤ 0.001), but correlated negatively with the abundance of the small-bodied zooplankter Tropocyclops prasinus (r = −0.385, p < 0.01). Bosmina antennule length correlated positively with the abundance of L. minutus (r = 0.344, p < 0.01) and negatively with T. prasinus (r = −0.258, p < 0.05). This broad, spatial scale assessment supports the use of Bosmina mucro and antennule lengths as a proxy for zooplankton community size structure. Mucro length is a stronger indicator of zooplankton community size structure as seen in its strong correlation with the NMS axis 1 and the significant correlations with abundance of predatory copepods.