77130 20200630143245.0 doi 10.3390/w11010106 sideral 110072 ART-2019-110072 eng Sgarzi, S. Plankton Taxonomic and Size Diversity of Mediterranean Brackish Ponds in Spring: Influence of Abiotic and Biotic Factors 2019 Access copy available to the general public Unrestricted In this study, performed in Mediterranean brackish ponds during spring season, we assessed the effects of biotic interactions and abiotic factors on the size and taxonomic structure of the phytoplankton and zooplankton. We used a taxonomic and a size diversity index as a descriptor of the community structure. We predicted that the size diversity of each trophic level would be mainly related to biotic interactions, such as size-based fish predation (in the case of zooplankton) and food resource availability (in the case of phytoplankton), whereas taxonomic diversity would be more affected by abiotic variables (e.g., conductivity, pond morphology). Our results showed a negative relationship between phytoplankton size diversity and food resource availability leading to low size diversities under food scarcity due to dominance of small species. Conductivity also negatively affected the phytoplankton size diversity, although slightly. Regarding zooplankton size diversity, none of predictors tested seemed to influence this index. Similar fish size diversities among ponds may prevent a significant effect of fish predation on size diversity of zooplankton. As expected, taxonomic diversity of phytoplankton and zooplankton was related to abiotic variables (specifically pond morphometry) rather than biotic interactions, which are usually body size dependent, especially in these species-poor brackish environments. info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MAPAMA/SOS Fartet Project info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess by http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ 0.108 2019 Water Science and Technology 2019 Q2 Biochemistry 2019 Q3 Fluid Flow and Transfer Processes 2019 Q4 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion Badosa, A. Leiva-Presa, À. Benejam, L. (orcid)0000-0002-5235-6776 López-Flores, R. Universidad de Zaragoza Brucet, S. 5011 220 Universidad de Zaragoza Dpto. CC.Agrar.y Medio Natural Área Ecología 11, 1 (2019), 106 [18 pp] Water (Basel) WATER 2073-4441 601812 http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/77130/files/texto_completo.pdf Versión publicada 107130 http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/77130/files/texto_completo.jpg?subformat=icon icon Versión publicada oai:zaguan.unizar.es:77130 articulos driver 2020-06-30-14:28:24 ARTICLE