Temporal pattern of macroinvertebrate diversity and production in a new man made shallow lake

The construction of an aquatic system to recycle the wastewater coming from an experimental aquaculture plant provided the opportunity to follow the evolution of structural and functional properties of a community in a new eutrophic shallow lake. Specific aims of this study were to describe the temporal patterns of diversity and production of the macroinvertebrate assemblage in different habitats. The benthic assemblage was sampled monthly for 3 years starting 1 month after pond filling. Each month, replicate samples of invertebrates were collected with quantitative methods from 3 habitats: unvegetated bottom, submerged vegetation and emergent vegetation of the littoral zone. We collected a total of 48 macroinvertebrate taxa belonging to 38 families. The number of taxa increased rapidly during the first phase of colonization (93% of taxa were already recorded within 14 months from pond filling) and then slowly decreased through the next 2 years. Diversity pattern through time was not consistent among habitats, being higher in the unvegetated bottom during the first year and on the submerged vegetation and the littoral vegetation in subsequent years. Slopes of rank-abundance curves showed differences among years and habitats, even though all habitats showed a trend towards the increase of the relative dominance of few taxa (e.g. diminishing of slopes). Macroinvertebrate production changed with time and was different among habitats. The development of submerged and emergent macrophytes greatly increased not only the diversity, but also the production of the whole macroinvertebrate assemblage.