Investigating Cladocera Community Composition in Wetlands with Different Hydrological Types

Climate change and global warming are increasingly affecting freshwater bodies both locally and globally, resulting in fluctuating water levels. Understanding how Cladocera communities are organized across different water body types is important for ecological assessment and conservation. In this study, we compared Cladocera assemblages between different wetland types with different water body types and evaluated the role of physicochemical characteristics and spatial structuring in shaping the community distribution patterns. Six water bodies were selected for our study; each contained three sampling points spaced at least 75–100 m apart. Cladocera specimens in the filtrate samples were identified at the species level. Homogeneity of multivariate dispersions (PERMDISP) and PCA analysis of site-related spatial effects were used to test differences in community composition. Based on previous studies and results, we concluded that the water body type significantly influenced the composition of Cladocera communities among the wetlands investigated.