Abstract
Despite the rising interest in cladoceran biogeography worldwide, many species distributions are still unknown to science, especially in naturally rich freshwater of the Neotropics. Herein we present a checklist of the taxa, giving the distributions of the valid species throughout 13 hydrographic basins within the two freshwater ecoregions of Northeastern Mata Atlântica and São Francisco. Superorder Cladocera comprises 72 known species in Bahia State classified into two orders: the Anomopoda, represented by Chydoridae (36 spp), Daphniidae (7), Macrothricidae (6), Bosminidae (4), Moinidae (3) and Ilyocryptidae (2); and Ctenopoda, represented by Sididae (8 spp). Species from the orders Onychopoda and Haplopoda are still lacking in Neotropical waters. The first compilation of the data on the Cladocera of Bahia, Brazil, is represented by this checklist and contains 38 new records for the state. Critical remarks on species distributions, as well as detailed information on sampling sites and geographic coordinates are also included.
Highlights
Species richness represents a single, but valuable, metric for the understanding of biodiversity patterns
The largest remnants of the Atlantic Forest, the “hottest” biodiversity hotspot for conservation priorities according to Myers et al (2000), is located in southern Bahia State, Northeast Brazil (Silva and Casteleti, 2003)
Three RPGAs — Contas, Paraguaçu and Recôncavo North — are the regions with the highest species richness, housing all six families and 81 % of all the species recorded for the entire Bahia State
Summary
Species richness represents a single, but valuable, metric for the understanding of biodiversity patterns. The fact that it is subject to extremes of interannual climate variability, has experienced large extinction episodes and is vulnerable to ongoing regional and global climate change (Brooks and Balmford, 1996; Marengo et al, 2010; Franchito et al, 2011) means that it likely has more endemic species than traditionally believed (Pilato and Binda, 2001). Another matter of concern is the reduction of natural areas in the Atlantic Forest, resulting in decreased quality of aquatic habitats, with the potential effect of the confinement of elements of the biota into conservation areas. This biome remains less than 13 % of its original range and is still facing a severe risk of elimination (SOS Mata Atlântica, 2019), along with the fact that it is poorly studied in terms of aquatic biodiversity, especially regarding zooplankton communities
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