Browsing by Author "Brendonck, Luc"

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    Seasonal river connections modulate community structure in (sub) tropical temporary pools
    (Elservier, 2025-12-01) Mwaijengo, Grite; Vanschoenwinkel, Bram; Brendonck, Luc
    In natural river systems in arid and semi-arid lands, surrounding floodplains may contain temporary pools. Some of these may be mainly rain-filled (endorheic systems) while others may be partly rain-fed but connect to the flooding river during a good rainy season (river-connected pools). However, how seasonal river flooding affects the community structure in temporary floodplain pools is not well understood, particularly in the Afro-tropical region. Here, we studied the role of seasonal river connections in modulating water quality and benthic macroinvertebrate community structure and functional feeding groups in a set of endorheic versus river-connected temporary pools in a river-floodplain ecosystem in northeastern Tanzania. Benthic macroinvertebrate communities from the two habitats were significantly differentiated. Spatial species turnover (β-diversity) was higher in river-connected pools, but endorheic ones supported a higher taxon richness (alpha diversity). Benthic macroinvertebrate community dissimilarity between pools was largely determined by turnover rather than by nestedness. Hydrological connectivity was positively associated with electric conductivity and negatively associated with nutrient concentrations in the river-connected pools. In addition, the river facilitated fish dispersal, which likely excluded predation sensitive taxa such as the large branchiopod crustaceans Streptocephalus bourquinii and Streptocephalus wirminghausi. Taxon richness of collector- gatherers and scrapers was significantly different between pool types. Indicator species analysis revealed no specific fauna unique to river-connected pools. This study illustrates that land management schemes that aim to preserve temporary-pool biodiversity should strive to include both endorheic and river-connected pools to support high regional biodiversity, potentially with a priority for the more diverse endorheic systems