Ecological requirements of Ostracoda (Crustacea) in three types of springs in Turkey

Abstract

Seasonal occurrence of six ostracod species ( Psychrodromus olivaceus, Potamocypris villosa, Ilyocypris inermis, Candona candida, Candona neglecta, and Cypridopsis vidua) varied from May 2003 to June 2004 in three types of spring (Limnocrene, Helocrene, Rheocrene). When I. inermis was only found in the limnocrene spring each month, P. olivaceus was common in all types of springs. The other four ostracods were found in the helocrene spring in fall, winter, and spring seasons. The unweighted pair group mean averages dendrogram separated three main clusters. The first cluster includes two species ( C. vidua, C. candida) while I. inermis was found in the second cluster and P. olivaceus, C. neglecta, and P. villosa were found in the third. The occurrence of P. olivaceus and C. neglecta and P. villosa and C. candida was strongly correlated to each other ( r=0.750 and 0.850, respectively). The Pearson correlation analyses showed a strong negative relationship between C. neglecta and water temperature ( r=−0.607), but other species did not show any significant correlation to any of the environmental variables used ( P>0.05). Canonical correspondence analyses (CCA) displayed all species closer to the center of the dendrogram, indicating high levels of species tolerances to environmental variables. Thus, the first axis of the CCA diagram explained 80% of the relationship between six species and five environmental variables.