Abstract
Global biodiversity decline is believed to be caused by high anthropopressure. Particularly vulnerable habitats are freshwater ecosystems, which are hotspots of biodiversity. The threat to these ecosystems are cyanobacterial blooms, which tend to proliferate in the face of climate changes. Cyanobacteria development and dominance affect the whole food web, especially the zooplankton community. We used three classical biodiversity indexes (species richness, Simpson’s Diversity Index and Shannon Diversity Index) and three functional diversity indexes (functional richness, functional evenness and functional divergence) to study the impact of cyanobacterial bloom on the zooplankton community. The study was conducted in water bodies with a different period of bloom duration (short-lasting blooms vs. long-lasting blooms) in order to determine the impact of the proliferated blooms on the aquatic ecosystems. Use of functional diversity indexes allowed for identifying changes that can be overlooked by classical biodiversity indexes. We conclude that cyanobacterial bloom involves modifications of functional trait space of studied communities and, in consequence, functioning of aquatic ecosystems.
Highlights
It is widely accepted that the current geological period is called ‘Anthropocene’ due to human activity (Crutzen 2006)
The blooms were present from August to October, while in the ponds they were present from June to the end of October
Functional diversity indexes are a reliable supplementation for traditional biodiversity indexes
Summary
It is widely accepted that the current geological period is called ‘Anthropocene’ due to human activity (Crutzen 2006). High anthropopressure leads to the loss of global biodiversity known as the ‘Sixth extinction’ (Barnosky et al 2011). All ecosystems are threatened, but the freshwaters experience declines in biodiversity far greater than the terrestrial one. The high risk and threat to freshwater ecosystems are from cyanobacterial blooms. Thanks to numerous adaptations e.g., higher temperature optimum compared to other phytoplankton groups (Paerl and Huisman 2008), cyanobacteria tend to develop better in a changing world and phenomena such as global warming, heat waves and eutrophication (e.g. O’neil et al 2012). Developing in mass, cyanobacteria create phenomena called water ‘blooms’ which impact many aspects of aquatic ecosystems, affecting the processes conducted by organisms dwelling in these habitats (Havens 2008). A vulnerable group to cyanobacterial blooms is zooplankton, which is inseparably related to phytoplankton
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