ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND HABITAT PREFERENCES OF OSTRACODA (CRUSTACEA) WITH A NEW BISEXUAL POPULATION RECORD (MUĞLA, TURKEY)

Abstract

In order to compare the ecological characteristics of non-marine ostracods with different reproductive modes, 68 sites including 11 different habitat types were examined in the province of Mula during July of 2014. A total of 28 taxa were found and 11 of them were new reports for Mula. Sexual populations of Psychrodromus olivaceus and P. fontinalis were encountered from the same sampling site. Males of the latter species were reported for the first time from Turkey. The female/male ratio of these species was higher at low altitudes while it was about the same at medium altitudes. Numbers of species in sexual and/or parthenogenetic populations with/without swimming setae and individuals in natural and artificial habitats did not show significant difference (P > 0.05). Troughs were described as the richest habitats for ostracods. The first two axes of Canonical Correspondence Analysis explained 66.2% of the relationships between species and environmental variables when the water temperature was the most effective factor on species composition (P < 0.01). Results suggest that type of reproductive modes did not show significant relationship with species distribution among different water bodies. Hence, it seems distribution of species is most probably affected by several biotic and abiotic factors.