Abstract
Freshwater ecosystems are of great importance but increasingly threatened by human land uses such as intensive livestock production. We investigated the influence of cattle grazing in floodplains on the zooplankton community during a period of water retraction. We hypothesized that cattle activity in surrounding shallow lakes acts as an environmental filter for zooplankton, with its effect depending on the hydrological conditions. Accordingly, we analyzed changes in the taxonomic and functional diversity metrics in three lakes characterized by different grazing management (no-cattle; short grazing period with high stocking rates; and long grazing period with low stocking rates) over a nine-month period into three periods of water retraction (flood, early low water, and late low water). Functional diversity indexes (FRic, FEve, FDis) were influenced by grazing management and the periods of water retraction, without interactive effects, while taxonomic indices (H’, J’, D’) did not show significant relationships with any of these variables. The FRic and FDis indices decreased in lakes subjected to cattle activity, whereas FEve and FDis increased during lower water periods. Functional and taxonomic composition exhibited different patterns among lakes according to grazing management and the periods of water retraction. Overall, a similar composition was found during the flood period but it diverged in the subsequent periods of water retraction. Besides, cattle activity reduced the functional and taxonomic composition in the late low water phase. Our findings suggest that cattle activity acts as an environmental filter for zooplankton altering the functional diversity and composition through the progress of water retraction.
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Data Availability
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Esteban Creus, and Celeste Mora for the field and chemical analysis assistance. We also thank MSc Alejandra Sosa for helping with the elaboration of map figures and the anonymous reviewers who provided useful comments and suggestions to improve the manuscript.
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We are grateful to Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientficas y Técnicas (CONICET) and Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (ANPCyT) (PICT 2012 − 0906 and 2018–2203 PI: Mesa L.) for the financial support.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Ana Paula Daiub, Gisela Mayora, Leticia Mesa, and María Florencia Gutierrez. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Daniel Nino Flores-Mendez and María Florencia Gutierrez, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Flores-Mendez, D.N., Daiub, A.P., Mayora, G. et al. Influence of Cattle Activity in Floodplains on the Zooplankton Community During a Period of Water Retraction. Wetlands 44, 4 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-023-01760-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-023-01760-w