Ostracoda (Crustacea) of the river bed in the lower course of a large lowland river system exemplified by the Oder River (Poland)

The study was carried out in the main branches of the Lower Oder River, differentiated in terms of sediments composition. The aim was performing a comparative studies on the differences in Ostracoda fauna inhabiting various types of sediments. Following bottom sediments were distinguished: hard, sapropel/hard, sapropel and Chironomidae mat. The packet of CANOCO v.4.5 programs was used to investigate the interdependence between the species composition and environmental parameters. Eighteen taxa were found of which 16 were identified to the species level. It was a comparatively high number considering the fact that the samples were collected exclusively from the benthic zone and solely from the main river bed, without floodplain. Physocypria kraepelini was an eudominant and Darwinula stevensoni and Cypria ophtalmica were dominants. The samples collected from the sapropel were characterised by the highest density. The case of hard sediments the status of domination was retained as above, but there appeared a new dominant, i.e. Potamocypris unicaudata . The most unique structure of domination was observed in the case of Chironomidae mat, with Limnocythere inopinata as an eudominant and Cypridopsis vidua and P. unicaudata as dominants. As for the species diversity, the hard sediments were characterised by the highest value of Shannon-Wiener Diversity Index, the sapropel/hard sediment was the lowest. The type of river bottom to a great extent affects the density and taxonomic composition of the Ostracoda in rivers. The waters of the Oder River, rich in oxygen, provide favourable conditions for the development of ostracods even on the surface of sapropel sediment