Journal
HYDROBIOLOGIA
Volume 827, Issue 1, Pages 89-121Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s10750-018-3772-z
Keywords
Aquatic invertebrates; Wetland invertebrates; Ephemeral wetlands; Temporary ponds; Southern Africa; African wetlands
Categories
Funding
- NRF-SAIAB Institutional Support system
- National Research Foundation [110507]
- Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture (Eastern Cape Government, South Africa)
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Temporary lentic wetlands are becoming increasingly recognised for their collective role in contributing to biodiversity at the landscape scale. In southern Africa, a region with a high density of such wetlands, information characterising the fauna of these systems is disparate and often obscurely published. Here we provide a collation and synthesis of published research on the aquatic invertebrate fauna inhabiting temporary lentic wetlands of the region. We expose the poor taxonomic knowledge of most groups, which makes it difficult to comment on patterns of richness and endemism. Only a few groups (e.g. large branchiopods, ostracods, copepods and cladocerans) appear to reach higher richness and/or endemicity in temporary wetlands compared to their permanent wetland counterparts. IUCN Red List information is lacking for most taxa, thus making it difficult to comment on the conservation status of much of the invertebrate fauna. However, except for a few specialist groups, many of the taxa inhabiting these environments appear to be habitat generalists that opportunistically exploit these waterbodies and this is hypothesised as one of the reasons why endemism appears to be low for most taxa. Given that taxonomy underpins ecology, the urgent need for more foundational taxonomic work on these systems becomes glaringly apparent.
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