Ecological opportunity enabled invertebrate radiations in ancient Lake Ohrid

Abstract

Ancient Lake Ohrid is the oldest and biologically most diverse freshwater lake in Europe. The recent deep-drilling campaign SCOPSCO provided detailed insights into the lake’s limnological history over the past 1.36 my. However, it remains unclear what factors triggered the onset of radiations and whether diversification rates remained constant throughout their evolution. We therefore inferred time-calibrated molecular phylogenies for eight invertebrate groups endemic to Lake Ohrid and performed diversification-rate analyses for the four most species-rich groups. The molecular-clock analyses indicate that few groups possibly originated in springs or rivers in the ‘proto-Balkans’ during the pre-lake phase. The onset of all other radiations, however, can be correlated to one of the three limnological phases in the Ohrid Graben and in Lake Ohrid since 1.9 mya. We therefore assume that the onset of radiations was triggered by an increased ecological opportunity arising from massive environmental changes in the course of the lake deepening. The diversification-rate analyses further indicate that the groups examined diversified with a constant rate. Although the reconstruction of the early evolutionary history of these groups remains challenging, our data suggest that the relatively stable conditions in Lake Ohrid together with its high buffer capacity likely prevented significant changes in diversification rates over time.