The influence of the Chaoborus brasiliensis (Theobald, 1901) (Diptera, Chaoboridae) larvae in the zooplankton vertical distribution at Nado Lagoon, Belo Horizonte, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil

Abstract

The effects of Chaoborus brasiliensis (Diptera, Chaoboridae), an invertebrate predator, on the zooplankton spatial distribution in a shallow tropical reservoir, Nado Lagoon, were investigated in this work. The habitat overlap degree, i.e., the overlap in the vertical distribution of predator and potential preys was measured during diel vertical migration (DVM). The study focused the reservoir predominant taxa (defined as the most frequent and abundant species). Several organisms showed DVM (Brachionus falcatus, B. caudatus, B. angularis, Moina micrura and Thermocyclops minutus), while in others this behavior was not clear, or even not detected (Keratella cochlearis, K. tropica, K. bostoniensis and T minutus nauplii). The conclusion was that C. brasiliensis influenced directly most zooplankters spatial distribution in this reservoir, and DVM was important to reduce spatial overlapping with the predator. Furthermore, the study showed that such behaviors change significantly along the season cycle.