SALINIZATION AND WARMING EFFECTS ON ZOOPLANKTON COMMUNITY IN MEDITERRANEAN SHALLOW LAKES: A MESOCOSM EXPERIMENT

Date

2025-12-1

Author

Kuyumcu, Meltem

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Freshwater ecosystems in Mediterranean climate zones are increasingly impacted by climate change. Altered precipitation patterns, together with elevated evaporation rates, reduce lake water volumes and consequently increase salinity. This increase can significantly alter aquatic community structure. While previous studies have often addressed the effects of warming or salinity separately, the combined effects of these stressors remain poorly understood, and research on hypersaline lakes is still limited. This study examined the responses of zooplankton communities to the combined effects of salinity and warming. A mesocosm experiment was conducted at the METU IMS Mersin, Türkiye, between September and November 2023, applying two salinity treatments (4 g/L and 40 g/L) and two temperature conditions (ambient temperature and ambient +4.5°C warming) to simulate potential future climate scenarios. The results revealed a pronounced shift in community composition between the salinity treatments. At 4 g/L, zooplankton communities were dominated by large-bodied taxa. In contrast, at 40 g/L salinity, these larger taxa were largely eliminated and replaced by halotolerant rotifers, primarily Brachionus plicatilis. PERMANOVA results indicated that warming had no significant effect on biomass, abundance, and composition of zooplankton. GAM analyses further indicated that Shannon diversity and evenness were higher at 4 g/L, while high salinity resulted in a rotifer-dominated community. Notably, warming exacerbated the reduction in diversity specifically at 40 g/L. Overall, these findings emphasize that increasing salinization, particularly in combination with warming, can alter zooplankton community structure in Mediterranean lakes, with potential cascading effects on trophic interactions, ecosystem stability, and freshwater management strategies.

Subject Keywords

Climate Change, Freshwater, Salinization, Warming, Zooplankton, Mediterranean Region, Mesocosm

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/118239

Collections

Graduate School of Marine Sciences, Thesis