Total nitrogen and pH are key variables for functional structure of zooplanktonic communities in an agropastoral...

Changes in land use are one of the main impacts on aquatic ecosystems. The conversion of natural areas into agropastoral, such as pasture or monocultures, can affect the limnological characteristics of the water that in turn influence the structure of aquatic communities. But the impact is still unclear, particularly on zooplankton communities. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of water parameters from eight reservoirs inserted in an agropastoral landscape on the functional structure of zooplankton. The functional characterization of the zooplankton community was based on four traits: body size, feeding type, habitat type, and trophic group. Functional diversity indices (FRic FEve and FDiv) were estimated and modeled water parameters, using generalized additive mixed models (GAAM). The water parameters investigated were total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP), dissolved oxygen (OD), temperature and pH. Moreover, we used RDA to analyze the influence of these environmental variables on the sharing of traits among the sample sites. FRic was high in the reservoirs with low TN concentration and low pH values. FEve was also high in low pH and high TP concentration. FDiv was high with unsharp increases of pH and high concentrations of TN and DO. Our analyses showed pH as a key variable for functional diversity, since it was related to the variation in all indices. Data also pointed out changes in diversity functional with small pH changes. The big and medium size, raptorial-cop and filtration-clad functional traits were positively associated with high concentrations of TN and alkaline pH. The small size and filtration-rot were negatively associated with high concentrations of TN and alkaline pH. Density of filtration-rot was lower in pasture landscapes. In conclusion, our study indicated that pH and TN are key variables for the functional structure of zooplanktonic communities in an agropastoral landscape.