New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts
Seasonal and spatial dynamics in the phytomacrofaunal community
of Lake Henley, New Zealand
R. J. MILLER*
R. G. DEATH
Department of Ecology
Massey University
Private Bag 11 222
Palmerston North, New Zealand.
* Present address: Department of Conservation, Private Bag 3016,
Wanganui.
Abstract The invertebrate communities associated with dense
beds of exotic macrophytes were sampled monthly between June 1993 and June 1994
from three sites in Lake Henley, a small artificial lake in the Southern
Wairarapa, North Island, New Zealand and from a small stream flowing into the
lake. All communities were dominated by either the gastropod Potamopyrgus
antipodarum or by oligochaetes. Community composition was similar at sites
within the lake monoculture but changed seasonally. These changes appeared to
be predominantly a result of seasonal fluctuations in the presence of
filamentous algae on the macrophyte beds. Communities sampled from the stream
site had a number of taxa in common with the lake communities but were quite
distinctive in terms of the relative abundance of these component taxa. The
diversity of the lake phytomacrofauna community, although comparable to similar
studies in other New Zealand lakes, had a lower proportion of insect taxa
perhaps because of the low floral diversity, the lack of depth variation, the
absence of a nearby colonising source or the young age of the lake.
Keywords artificial lake; aquatic invertebrate communities;
Elodea canadensis; macrophytes; phytomacrofauna
New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 1997, Vol. 31:
423-434
0028-8330/97/3104-0423 $7.00/0 (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand
1997
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (801K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
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