TRENDS IN AQUATIC ECOLOGY II Diversity patterns and biogeography of Diaptomidae (Copepoda, Calanoida) in the Western Palearctic Federico Marrone . Giuseppe Alfonso . Luigi Naselli-Flores . Fabio Stoch Received: 22 March 2017 / Revised: 18 April 2017 / Accepted: 22 April 2017 / Published online: 11 May 2017 Ó Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 Abstract Diaptomid copepods are an important component of biodiversity in inland aquatic ecosys- tems worldwide but to date little is known about the historical and ecological factors that determined their current distribution. In the present paper, a critical review of the available literature on diaptomid species distribution in the Western Palearctic was performed, and a biogeographical analysis was carried out on the roles that spatial, current environmental, and historical (paleoclimatic) factors played on their actual distri- bution in this large area. The results show a clear pattern of colonization which is only partially overlapping what has been recently proposed for other terrestrial and aquatic taxa. Disentangling beta diver- sity into its turnover and nestedness components, we hypothesized a complex post-glacial pattern of recol- onization of the higher latitudes, encompassing the importance of extra-Mediterranean refugia in the West (due to mountain chains which represent effective barriers for recolonization coming from the Italian and Iberian peninsulas) and a more typical pattern of post- glacial recolonization from southern refugia in the East, where mountain chains are north–south oriented and therefore less effective as barriers. Keywords Inland waters Á b-diversity Á Post-glacial recolonization Á Species turnover Á Nestedness Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10750-017-3216-1) contains supple- mentary material, which is available to authorized users. Guest editors: Koen Martens, Sidinei M. Thomaz, Diego Fontaneto & Luigi Naselli-Flores / Emerging Trends in Aquatic Ecology II F. Marrone (&) Department of Biological, Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies – Section of Zoology, University of Palermo, via Archirafi 18, 90123 Palermo, Italy e-mail: federico.marrone@unipa.it G. Alfonso (&) Di.S.Te.B.A., University of Salento, s.p. Lecce- Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy e-mail: giuseppe_alfonso@yahoo.it L. Naselli-Flores (&) Department of Biological, Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies – Section of Botany and Plant Ecology, University of Palermo, via Archirafi 28, 90123 Palermo, Italy e-mail: luigi.naselli@unipa.it F. Stoch (&) Evolutionary Biology & Ecology, Universite ´ Libre de Bruxelles, Avenue F.D. Roosevelt 50, 1050 Brussels, Belgium e-mail: fabio.stoch@ulb.ac.be 123 Hydrobiologia (2017) 800:45–60 DOI 10.1007/s10750-017-3216-1