Reproduction and life span characterization of Artemia urmiana in Lake Urmia, Iran (Branchiopoda: Anostraca)

Urmia Lake is one of the largest permanent hypersaline lakes in the world. The lake can be characterized as an oligotrophic lake concerning phytoplankton production. Due to low precipitation in recent years in Urmia Lake's catchment area, the water level has declined as much as 4 m compared to 15 years ago. Irrespective of its recent evolution, Urmia Lake has always shown fluctuations in historical and geological times, which may cause some ecological partition. Regarding allopatric speciation model of Artemia we assume that several populations of Artemia are generated during last years and living in Urmia Lake. To investigate Artemia population diversity in Urmia Lake, A. urmiana Gunther 1890 cysts were collected from five sites in Lake Urmia, Iran. These sites in part represent areas with different physicochemical conditions. To detect possible differences between stations, discriminant analysis (DA) was performed on data of survival, growth, and reproduction at two salinities (75 and 150 g L-1) in laboratory culture tests. The performed DA implied that for the reproductive and life span characters, in both salinities, the stations of Golmankhaneh can be determined as the separated group among the studied stations which can be considered for industrial projects and evolutionary studies.