The reproductive strategies of cladocerans facilitate the development of large transitory population. These organisms
are typically reproduced by asexual reproduction (parthenogenesis); however, environmental factors
may induce sexual reproduction and production of resting eggs which allow the survival of the species during
periods of harsh environmental conditions [37].
The resting eggs and male production are uncommon or unknown in some Cladocera species. It is generally
related to adverse conditions such as changes in water temperature, overcrowding, that results in reduction of
food supply, excretion products accumulation [38], decreasing of ingestion rate [39] and other factors probably
still unknown.
Bosmina huaroensis disappeared for two subsequent months right after the period of overcrowding and appeared
again in February 2008. The absence of male organisms was observed for six months until June 2008
when they were noticed again. It was detected harsh environmental conditions during the two-month period of B.
huaroensis absence (December and January).
The disappearance of Bosmina huaroensis and of the male population, in addition to the low densities of cladocerans
recorded in December may be associated with the phytoplankton collapse, followed by toxins release
and the consequent high mortality rates of these organisms. Another factor resulting from the collapse, which
might have harmed the zooplankton, is the low dissolved oxygen concentration throughout the highly stratified
water column in December.
Changes in diversity and species richness were also detected. In 1997, the low diversity and evenness had already
evidenced the predominance of few species, a typical condition of impacted environments. However, the
reduction of 82% in richness value and the decrease of diversity values are indicative that changes have further
restricted the environment to most adaptable species.
Although the evenness values did not present major changes, it should be considered that the number of species
decreased significantly. Therefore the distribution of the relative abundances of species was more uniform
when compared to the pre-removal period, which presented many species but few dominant and many rare ones.
Reference [40] investigated the relation between primary productivity and richness of species in lake communities
(phytoplankton, rotifers, cladocerans, copepods, macrophytes and fish) and verified that the strongest
and most consistent relation was the decline in richness of the crustacean zooplankton species with increased
productivity. The variety of mechanisms that interfere in the relation richness-productivity includes the transient
dynamics and the shift to a new system state as noticed at Garças Reservoir.
The free floating macrophytes removal in shallow systems may cause disastrous effects to the ecosystem as
well as to biotic communities, as observed in this study for Cladocera. The deterioration of water quality after
the hyper eutrophication triggered by the harvest of macrophytes promoted the reduction of species richness and
diversity, changes in composition and structure of community with replacement of Daphnia by smaller cladocerans,
signs of population stress with occurrence of male organisms and overcrowding.
5. Conclusion
We believe this study provides relevant information for the study of Cladocera as bioindicators of water quality
and on the dynamics of these organisms in hypereutrophic tropical reservoirs, since it presents and discusses the
data scarcely found in literature, like the occurrence of male organisms and overcrowding. Present results may
contribute to further monitoring of zooplankton community as a tool to assess aquatic ecosystem with anthropogenic
influences in tropical/subtropical areas.
Acknowledgements
We thank Dr. Denise de Campos Bicudo for the valuable theoretical contribution and revision of the manuscript
and Dr. Sandra Costa Vieira and the Aquatic Ecology Laboratory of the Instituto de Botânica for providing necessary
data for this study.