Daily vertical distribution of zooplankton in two oligo-mesotrophic north Patagonian lakes (39° S, Chile).

Abstract The zooplankton communities often exhibit daily vertical migrations to avoid natural ultraviolet radiation and/or fish predation. However there is no information on this topic in Chilean North Patagonian lakes up date. Therefore, study deals with a first characterization of plankton crustacean migration two temperate, oligotrophic (Villarrica and Panguipulli lakes, 39°S) Southern Chile. Zooplankton were collected at different depths intervals (0-10m, 10-20 m, 20-30m, 30-40m) early morning, middle day, evening night the studied site. results revealed that species (Daphnia pulex, Ceriodaphnia dubia, Neobosmina chilensis, Mesocyclops araucanus, Tropocyclops prasinus) are abundant surface zones night, morning evening, whereas day abundances high deep zones. agree observations for Argentinean American where these patterns reported due mainly exposure, northern hemisphere combined effect predation exposure.