Relations between biological diversity in continental waterbodies and their morphometry and water mineralization

number of phytoplankton, zooplankton, and macrobenthos species was studied in continental lakes of diverse origin, geographical position, and hydrochemical ( water mineralization) and morphological (area and capacity) characteristics. It is shown that the diversity of benthos communities depends on mineralization, area, and capacity of the waterbody, the dependence on area and mineralization being stronger than the dependence on capacity. Zooplankton community diversity depends on water mineralization and, to a very small extent, on waterbody area. The number of phytoplankton species in a lake is not strictly determined by morphometric characteristics and water mineralization. This number is to a greater extent dependent on other factors (e. g., light, nutrients, etc.). The largest number of benthos and plankton species was observed in waterbodies with water mineralization around 0.4 g/l. Increase in mineralization leads not only to decrease in species number, but also to simplification of community structure in plankton and bottom organisms, which is reflected by the Shannon index of diversity decreasing accordingly. The studied relations show wide dispersal in the number of species that can result, beside other factors unaccounted for, from the uneven reliability of the identifications and recordings of plankton and benthos species due to the different proficiency level of experts in taxonomy and systematics.