Biodiversity and environmental factors affecting the distribution of crustaceans in spring pools: Case study, Rashkan, Urmia

The Rashkan area located in the central part of Urmia city near the southwest of Urmia Lake (N 36° 56' E 45° 37'), is important for wildlife especially endemic and migratory birds due to its numerous spring pools. Field inventory along with sampling of water and living aquatic (micro)/organisms were carried out during the spring, April and May 2018, from different 14 locations. Water physio-chemical properties and living crustaceans species were studied. Results revealed that distribution pattern of crustaceans were strongly affected by environmental factors. A number of environmental factors including turbidity, total suspended solids and chlorophyll a have most positive effect on biodiversity indices of the studied habitats. The highest biodiversity of crustaceans in the Rashkan region was recorded during the sampling in May and the lowest one was observed in the first sampling in April. Also, the highest richness and species density was obtained in the second sampling. The results were confirmed by the Shannon-Wiener Biodiversity Index (1.632 in the first sampling compared to 0.816 in the second sampling) and Simpson's Diversity Index (0.494 in the first sampling compared to 0.157 in the second sampling).It can be concluded that the region has relatively good environmental condition for distribution of various crustacean species such as cladocerans, copepods and fairy shrimps requiring more attention by Lake Urmia environmental conservation organizations.