Review: Diapause in Crustaceans and its Ecological and Biogeographical Implications: An Example from Patagonian Ephemeral Pools

Abstract

The production of diapause eggs is a strategy for survival adopted by microcrustaceans living under adverse environments. This strategy also, aids dispersion and colonization in new environments. In the long term, this colonization process can enhanced genetic isolation as the first step in the process of species evolution. The present study is: (a) wider review of the diapause process in inland water crustaceans and its ecological, evolutionary and biogeographical implications, and (b) it's application to microcrustacean assemblages in inland waters in southern Patagonia. In the literature the diapause strategy was described from anostracans, cladocerans and copepods as microcrustaceans, and amphipoda in malacostracan crustaceans. High crustacean species richness was recorded from Southern Patagonia, this region having species of southern South American and Sub-Antarctic islands origin. Their spatial distribution is probably explained by the presence of migratory birds. Also, many habitats of the microcrustaceans are ephemerals, that would be studied under metapopulation and metacommunities view point.Key words: diapause, colonization, metapopulations, metacommunities, anostracans, cladocerans, copepods. RESUMENLos microcrustáceos tienen como estrategias del ciclo de vida la generación de huevos en estado de diapausa bajo condiciones ambientales adversas, esta estrategia provee facilidades para la dispersión que generan procesos de colonización los que estimulan procesos de aislamiento genético como primer

Loss of a freshwater copepod species from El Junco Lake, Galápagos following the introduction and eradication of the Nile tilapia

“…As the copepod was inhabiting a remote and isolated lake, the identified candidate sources of propagules are limited to: (i) the viability of the dormant stages in the sediments of the lake (in present or past sediments); or (ii) the occurrence of other populations of the same species in nearby water bodies (Figure 3). As with many other crustaceans, calanoid copepods may produce dormant stages that reside and stay viable in sediments for decades or centuries while unfavourable environmental conditions remain (Jiang et al, 2012;de los Ríos-Escalante & Robles, 2013).…”