Determination of the distribution and ecological characteristics of Ostracoda (Crustacea) species in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus

This study aimed to determine the distribution and ecological characteristics of Ostracoda species in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Also, it is aimed to elaborate the species composition between the Mersin (Türkiye) and Cyprus and study the importance of the Island Biogeography Theory for ostracods reported from the islands located in the Southern and Northern hemisphere. Total of 79 sites were randomly sampled between 18 May to 12 August 2022 and 28 living ostracods from 15 different habitats were identified. Of which, 24 species are new records for the island. Calculation of the ecological tolerance and optimum values of 17 species displayed that species with cosmopolitan and/or cosmoecious characteristics had higher tolerance values for different ecological variables .The first two axes of Canonical Correspondence Analyses (CCA) explained 64.3 % of relationships between species and environmental and chemical variables. Most effective variables on the species were EC, Mg+2 and Ca+2 Ternary Plots exhibited that Na+and Cl- were dominant variables in the waters of sampling sites. A non-parametric Spearman Rank Correlation analysis outlined the correlation between eight species and nine environmental and chemical variables. The t-test result revealed that there was no significant difference between the Mersin and Cyprus. Result of this study and literature research, 256 species from Northern and 121 species from Southern hemisphere were detected with 26 common species. As a result of the evaluation of the Island Biogeography Theory, the number of species tend to increase as the island located closer to the mainland. KEYWORDS: Ostracoda, Habitat Diversity, Distribution, Ecology Preference, Tolerance and Optimum Estimates, Island Biogeography Theory