Diversity of zooplankton of Tatras lakes in space and time

This thesis is the first of its kind that evaluates the species composition, species richness and species abundance of zooplankton in littoral samples of 90 Tatras lakes (Western and High Tatras of Slovakia and Poland) collected in September 2004 in the context of environmental parameters of lakes and spatial relationships of individual lakes. The most frequently occurring species in the Tatras lakes in 2004 were also evaluated in terms of their occurrence in the lakes a century ago (Minkiewicz 1914, 1917 and Lityński 1913, 1917), during the period of acidification (Ertl & Vranovský 1964, Ertl et al. 1965, Hrbáček et al. 1974, Stuchlík et al. 1985) and during the period of recovery of the lakes from acidification (Hořická et al. 2006, Sacherová et al. 2006). Relationships between variables were analysed using Poisson regression, cluster analysis with multinomial regression, canonical correspondence analysis, Mantel tests and multiple negative binomial regression. Using analyses, lakes were divided into four clusters (A, B, C, D). Each cluster consisted of lakes with the same environmental and spatial factors and similar species composition. Thirteen zooplankton species (Acanthocyclops vernalis, Acroperus harpae, Alona affinis, Arctodiaptomus alpinus, Ceriodaphnia quadrangula, Cyclops abyssorum..