Zooplankton communities in doline lakes and pools, in relation to some bathymetric parameters and physical and chemical variables

The zooplankton communities from several lakes and pools inthree zones of a karstic area in central Spain were studiedin spring and early autumn, in relation to morphometric, physicaland chemical characteristics of the lakes. Zooplankton diversitywas higher in autumn than in spring and it was positively correlatedwith lake size (area and depth) in spring, but not in earlyautumn. This effect is partially explained by the sharp zooplanktonstratification in deep lakes, in early autumn. Some morphometriccharacteristics of lake basins were also correlated with thestructure of zooplankton communities. Principal component analyses(PCA) and Two-Way Indicator Species Analysis (TWINSPAN) performedon zooplankton data and a posterior correlation analysis withthe extracted factors and main limnological parameters showedthat trophic state in the first place, and mineralization inthe second place, were the main sources of variance to explainour data. However, the results of these analyses also show thatimportant sources explaining the variance of zooplankton datainclude some factors not quantified in the standard limnologicalanalysis, but evidently related to lake typology, such as shallownessand type of water feeding and flux.