Distribution of the cladoceran Bosmina huaronensis Delachaux, 1918 and niche differentiation among populations from different biogeographic regions

Described from a high-altitude lake in Peru, Bosmina huaronensis Delachaux, 1918 has been recorded in diverse kinds of water bodies in South and North America, suggesting that this species has high environmental tolerance and a wide niche breadth. The present study surveyed the occurrence records of B. huaronensis from 55 localities and, using multivariate analysis, investigated the niche differentiation among populations from different biogeographic regions, based on altitude and seven climatic variables. The first two principal components (PC) explained 73% of the overall variance. PC1 was r...