The aquatic-terrestrial ecology of a tropical temporary pond

Most research on temporary lentic ecosystems has been conducted in temperate regions, with work on the terrestrial phase in its infancy. This study sought to address some of these gaps by studying two temporary lentic ecosystems in Jamaica. The fauna of the aquatic and terrestrial phases of an urban, temporary freshwater pond were intensively studied, revealing the intricacies of urban aquatic-terrestrial ecosystems. Separating the aquatic and terrestrial phases were the transitional flooded and drying phases. In total, 332 fauna species were collected, with variations in their fauna and species diversity among all phases. The terrestrial phase of the ecosystem was the most diverse with a temporal γ-diversity of 0.921. The aquatic phase had the lowest temporal γ-diversity, 0.569, attributed to high abundances of Culex nigripalpus, Atrichopogon sp. and Eulimnadia insularis. The temporal γ-diversity of the flooded and drying phases were 0.832 and 0.796 respectively. Analysing only the aquatic and terrestrial phases together, temporal γ-diversity was 0.680. This measure increased to 0.767 with the incorporation of the fauna of the flooded and drying phases. Temporal β-diversity was lowest between the aquatic and terrestrial phases, 0.024. The terrestrial phase, compared with the flooded and drying phases, had low temporal β-diversity, measuring 0.314 and 0.330 respectively. Similarly, the flooded and drying phases showed low temporal β-diversity, 0.342.