CLADOCERA BIODIVERSITY IN LA TEMBLADERA LAKE (ECUADOR): A PALAEOLIMNOLOGICAL APPROACH

Cladocera (Crustacea: Branchiopoda) biodiversity was examined in sediment assemblages in La Tembladera Lake, on the southern coast of Ecuador. We found remains from 14 Cladocera taxa belonging to three families: Sididae, Daphnidae and Chydoridae. One taxon is planktonic (Ceriodaphnia spp.) and 13 taxa are littoral (Sarsilatona serricauda, Chydorus sp., Dunhevenia sp., Leberis sp., Alona sp., Magnospina dentifera, Kurzia sp., Acroperus tupinamba, Camptocercus sp., Oxyurella longicaudis, Leydigiopsis sp., Euryalona sp. and Notoalona cf. sculpta). Descriptions and pictures of the remains were included in this article to help palaeolimnologists identify tropical cladoceran remains in the sediment. These results enlarge the crustacean biodiversity data for dry tropical forests in South America and help to constrain our understanding of their geographical distribution. Further studies should focus on capturing living cladocerans to make identifications at the species level and to help interpret the sedimentary signal using ecological data.