Exploring links between geology, hydroperiod, and diversity and distribution patterns of anostracans and notostracans (Branchiopoda) in a tropical savannah habitat in SE Zimbabwe

Ecology and distribution of large branchiopods (Crustacea, Branchiopoda, Anostraca, Notostraca, Laevicaudata, Spinicaudata) of the Eastern Cape Karoo, South Africa

“…Geology underlying waterbodies affects their geochemistry and in this regard Rogers (2014b, c) found significant relationships between geochemical variables such as percent gypsum and calcium carbonate, salinity, cation type, and substrate type with anostracan species distribution across different bioregions in North America and Australia. Tuytens et al (2015) did not find any strong effect of soil geology on the composition of anostracan and notostracan assemblages in pools in a tropical savannah habitat of south-east Zimbabwe. However, Tuytens et al (2015) looked at a far smaller area and far fewer species than Rogers (2014b, c).…”

“…Tuytens et al (2015) did not find any strong effect of soil geology on the composition of anostracan and notostracan assemblages in pools in a tropical savannah habitat of south-east Zimbabwe. However, Tuytens et al (2015) looked at a far smaller area and far fewer species than Rogers (2014b, c). During our study, large branchiopods were absent from six of the nine dams surveyed.…”

Deeper knowledge of shallow waters: reviewing the invertebrate fauna of southern African temporary wetlands

“…Another feature of the ostracod fauna is the specific diversity in the family Lymnocytheridae for rock pools of the Drakensberg (SA), which is unmatched anywhere else in the world (Martens et al, 1998). Southern Africa is considered one of the world's hotspots of large branchiopod diversity (Tuytens et al, 2015), almost all of which is housed in temporary wetlands. When considering the region's area, the anostracan fauna is one of the richest worldwide and also has a very high endemicity (~80% at the time of the review of Hamer & Brendonck, 1997).…”

“…This is no exception in the largely semi-arid subcontinent of southern Africa, where they are widespread and diverse. The large branchiopod fauna is well studied in the region compared to most of the aquatic invertebrate groups so far covered in this review and to date approximately 66 species have been recorded (Tuytens et al, 2015).…”

“…Various aspects of the ecology of southern African large branchiopods (including metacommunity dynamics, competition and predation, adaptations to drying and local abiotic conditions, human impacts, management and conservation) have received considerable research attention due largely to a series of studies of rock pools in the eastern Free State province (Vanschoenwinkel et al, 2007;Vanschoenwinkel et al, 2009;Vanschoenwinkel et al, 2010a;Vanschoenwinkel et al, 2010b;Pinceel et al, 2013;Vanschoenwinkel et al, 2013;Tuytens et al, 2014) and south-eastern Botswana (Brendonck et al, 1998;Brendonck et al, 2000a;Brendonck et al, 2000b;De Roeck et al, 2005;Jocqué et al, 2006;Jocqué et al, 2010). Recently, the large branchiopod fauna of soft-bottomed wetlands and rock pools have received ecological attention in Zimbabwe (Nhiwatiwa et al, 2011;Anusa et al, 2012;Nhiwatiwa et al, 2014;Tuytens et al, 2015;Nhiwatiwa et al, 2017a;Nhiwatiwa & Dalu, 2017;Nhiwatiwa et al, 2017b) and the Western Cape province (De Roeck et al, 2007;De Roeck et al, 2010;Mlambo et al, 2011). A scattering of studies exists from various other localities, including Namibia (Day, 1990;Curtis, 1991), Botswana (Brendonck & Riddoch, 1997), the Drakensberg , and soft-bottomed wetlands in the Free State (Seaman et al, 1991;Meintjes, 1996), Mpumalanga (Ferreira et al, 2011(Ferreira et al, , 2012, North-West (de Necker et al, 2016), Northern Cape (Hamer & Rayner, 1996) and KwaZulu-Natal …”