Association between clonal diversity and species diversity in subarctic zooplankton communities

Abstract

Genetic diversity in a single species and species diversity (SD) in a whole community are often interrelated because they are frequently influenced by a common factor or interact directly with each other. This study examined the effect of environmental and spatial factors on the distribution of clonal diversity in Daphnia pulex and of SD in zooplankton communities in subarctic ponds, and tested the association of these diversity levels when the effect of these factors was partitioned out. Forty-one ponds in the Kuujjuarapik area, Nunavik, Canada, were characterized according to their physico-chemical properties, Daphnia clonal composition and zooplankton assemblage. Variation in clonal distribution in Daphnia was mostly explained by water conductivity, pH and depth. Conductivity, altitude, temperature, phaeopigments, surface of the pond and spatial factors accounted for 12% of the variation in the zooplankton community. There was a positive association between diversity levels suggesting that clonal diversity and SD affected each other directly, probably via the effect of clonal diversity in Daphnia on the rest of the zooplankton community. Our results suggest that a better understanding of the interaction between genetic and SD in subarctic and arctic environments will be important to predict biodiversity changes resulting from climate change.