Alterações na estrutura da comunidade zooplanctônica e na morfologia de cladóceros relacionadas ao aumento no grau de trofia do reservatório da UHE de Furnas – MG

Abstract

The reservoir of the hydroelectric plant of Furnas - MG is a system with great heterogeneity and ecologically unstable. He has suffered from environmental degradation due to human activities to its surroundings, which release large volumes of organic and inorganic matter in dissolved or particulate form. In recent years, the reservoir is low storage volume which associated human actions can affect the ecological processes change the zooplankton community of this ecosystem. To evaluate the structure and biomass of the zooplankton community of this reservoir and associate ace morphological changes identified in cladocerans the decrease in the reservoir water quality have been collected monthly during the period July 2013 to February 2014. Five points of Furnas reservoir were sampled, two in the coastal region and three in the limnetic for analysis of the physical, chemical parameters and the zooplankton community. The high concentration of nutrients and chlorophyll resulting from anthropogenic activities coupled with the drought period was characterized points mostly as normal during the dry season. There was low species richness, with 54 taxa identified, with high species diversity of rotifers (25 taxa) in points with higher trophic level. Males of Alona sp. were found between the months from July to November in four of the five points analyzed. Morphological changes were observed in five species of cladocerans: Dapnhia gessneri, Chydorus pubescens, Ceriodaphnia silvestrii, Bosmina tubicen e Bosmina freyii. Two types of changes in Ch. Pubescens were recorded at all points more frequently in the months from July to December. These changes may be related to the increase of the trophic level driven by the decrease in the useful volume of the reservoir.