Salinity level and occurrence of centropagid copepods [Crustacea, Copepoda, Calanoida] in shallow lakes in Andes Mountains and Patagonian Plains, Chile

In Andes Mountains (14–27°S) and Patagonian plains (45–53°S) in Chile, there are numerous shallow saline and sub-saline lakes. These water bodies have important temporal and spatial variation of their salinity caused by mineral composition of their watershed or exposition to arid weather. In this study we compared the salinity level and the occurrence of centropagid copepods (Crustacea, Copepoda, Calanoida) in water bodies of both regions. In the Andes Mts the calanoids inhabit water bodies of salinity lower than 90 g l⁻¹, and the representative species was Boeckella poopoensis (Marsh 1906), that occurs between 5.0 to 90.0 g l⁻¹. In Patagonian plains, the copepods occur at salinity level between 0.1 to 16.0 g l⁻¹, and within these values most frequent are B. popei (Mrázek 1901) and Parabroteas sarsi (Mrázek 1901). Both species can coexist with other calanoid species.