Volume 25 (2008)
DESCRIPTION
OF THE SUBFOSSIL HEAD SHIELD OF Alona
protzi HARTWIG 1900 (ANOMOPODA, CHYDORIDAE) AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL
CHARACTERISTICS OF ITS FINDING SITES
Rikke
Bjerring1, Mirva Nykänen2, Kaarina
Sarmaja-Korjonen3,
Artem Sinev4, Karina Jensen1,
Liisa
Nevalainen3, Krystyna Szeroczyńska5, Edyta Zawisza5
1 National Environmental Research
Institute, Department of Freshwater Ecology, University of Aarhus,
Vejlsvej
25, DK-8600 Silkeborg, Denmark, e-mail: rbh@dmu.dk, kje@dmu.dk
2 Department of Ecological and
Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Niemenkatu 73,
FI-15140
Lahti, Finland, e-mail: mirva.nykanen@helsinki.fi
3 Department of Geology, P.O. Box 64,
FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland,
e-mail:
kaarina.sarmaja-korjonen@helsinki.fi, liisa.nevalainen@helsinki.fi
4 Department of Invertebrate Zoology,
Biological Faculty, Moscow State University, Moscow 119992, Russia,
e-mail:
artem.sinev@mail.ru
5 Institute of Geological Sciences,
PAS, Twarda 51/55, 00-818 Warsaw, Poland,
e-mail:
kszerocz@twarda.pan.pl, ezawisza@twarda.pan.pl
Abstract
This paper gives a description of the head shield of Alona protzi, a rare species of Cladocera (water fleas) whose separated head shield has not yet been described in detail. Subfossil head shields of A. protzi were found in sediment cores taken from lakes in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Poland. Despite the rarity of the species this suggests a wide distribution of A. protzi in northern Europe. The ecology of A. protzi is poorly known. The environmental spectrum of the finding sites was wide and ranged from relatively nutrient poor clear water lakes to eutrophic turbid water lakes, indicating that A. protzi is not narrowly restricted. Most of the lakes were, however, meso-eutrophic with neutral to high pH, and with a relatively low abundance of submerged macrophytes. However, we cannot exclude the possibility that A. protzi mainly lives in groundwater and is only occasionally transported into lakes.| Editor-in-Chief: | Tomasz Goslar |
| Co-Editors: | Małgorzata Latałowa Wojciech Stankowski Krystyna Szeroczyńska |
| Secretary |
Mariusz Lamentowicz |