| Moina belli | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Crustacea |
| Class: | Branchiopoda |
| Order: | Anomopoda |
| Family: | Moinidae |
| Genus: | Moina |
| Species: | M. belli |
| Binomial name | |
| Moina belli | |
Moina belli is a species of crustaceans within the family Moinidae, described by Robert Gurney in 1904. This species lives in waters containing high salinity and other impurities, such as the Makgadikgadi Pans region of Botswana, where the salinity is extremely high. [2]
The halophiles, named after the Greek word for "salt-loving", are extremophiles that thrive in high salt concentrations. While most halophiles are classified into the domain Archaea, there are also bacterial halophiles and some eukaryotic species, such as the alga Dunaliella salina and fungus Wallemia ichthyophaga. Some well-known species give off a red color from carotenoid compounds, notably bacteriorhodopsin. Halophiles can be found in water bodies with salt concentration more than five times greater than that of the ocean, such as the Great Salt Lake in Utah, Owens Lake in California, the Urmia Lake in Iran, the Dead Sea, and in evaporation ponds. They are theorized to be a possible analogues for modeling extremophiles that might live in the salty subsurface water ocean of Jupiter's Europa and similar moons.
The Kalahari Desert is a large semi-arid sandy savanna in Southern Africa extending for 900,000 square kilometres (350,000 sq mi), covering much of Botswana, and parts of Namibia and South Africa.
Halotolerance is the adaptation of living organisms to conditions of high salinity. Halotolerant species tend to live in areas such as hypersaline lakes, coastal dunes, saline deserts, salt marshes, and inland salt seas and springs. Halophiles are organisms that live in highly saline environments, and require the salinity to survive, while halotolerant organisms can grow under saline conditions, but do not require elevated concentrations of salt for growth. Halophytes are salt-tolerant higher plants. Halotolerant microorganisms are of considerable biotechnological interest.
Daphnia is a genus of small planktonic crustaceans, 0.2–6.0 mm (0.01–0.24 in) in length. Daphnia are members of the order Anomopoda, and are one of the several small aquatic crustaceans commonly called water fleas because their saltatory swimming style resembles the movements of fleas. Daphnia spp. live in various aquatic environments ranging from acidic swamps to freshwater lakes and ponds.
Spercheus is a genus of aquatic beetles which are placed in a family of their own, Spercheidae within the Hydrophiloidea. About 20 species are known from around the world except the Nearctic with the majority being from the Oriental and Afrotropical Realms.
Lake Makgadikgadi was a paleolake that existed in what is now the Kalahari Desert in Botswana from 2,000,000 years BP to 10,000 years BP. It may have once covered an area of from 80,000 to 275,000 km2 and was 30 m deep. The Okavango, Upper Zambezi, and Cuando rivers once all emptied into the lake. Its remains are seen in the Makgadikgadi salt pans, one of the largest salt pans in the world.
Gloeocapsa is a genus of cyanobacteria. The cells secrete individual gelatinous sheaths which can often be seen as sheaths around recently divided cells within outer sheaths. Recently divided cell pairs often appear to be only one cell since the new cells cohere temporarily. They are also known as glow caps, a term derived from the yellowish hue given off by the cap.
Lake Magadi is the southernmost lake in the Kenyan Rift Valley, lying in a catchment of faulted volcanic rocks, north of Tanzania's Lake Natron. During the dry season, it is 80% covered by soda and is well known for its wading birds, including flamingos.
Nodularia is a genus of filamentous nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae. They occur mainly in brackish or salinic waters, such as the hypersaline Makgadikgadi Pans, the Peel-Harvey Estuary in Western Australia or the Baltic Sea. Nodularia cells occasionally form heavy algal blooms. Some strains produce a cyanotoxin called nodularin R, which is harmful to humans.
The Makgadikgadi Pan, a salt pan situated in the middle of the dry savanna of north-eastern Botswana, is one of the largest salt flats in the world. The pan is all that remains of the formerly enormous Lake Makgadikgadi, which once covered an area larger than Switzerland, but dried up tens of thousands of years ago. Recent studies of human mitochondrial DNA suggest that modern Homo sapiens first began to evolve in this region some 200,000 years ago, when it was a vast, exceptionally fertile area of lakes, rivers, marshes, woodlands and grasslands especially favorable for habitation by evolving hominins and other mammals.
The Kalahari Basin, also known as the Kalahari Depression, Okavango Basin or the Makgadikgadi basin, is an endorheic basin and large lowland area covering approximately 725,293 km2 covering most of Botswana and Namibia, as well as parts of Angola, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The outstanding physical feature in the basin, and occupying the centre, is the large Kalahari Desert.
Caconemobius is a genus of crickets in the subfamily Nemobiinae. There are about 15 species distributed from the Pacific coasts of Asia to Hawaii, where they occur in marine environments on the shores of the Pacific Ocean.
Nitzschia is a common pennate marine diatom. In the scientific literature, this genus, named after Christian Ludwig Nitzsch, is sometimes termed Nitzchia, and it has many species described, which all have a similar morphology.
Branchinella spinosa is a species within the family Thamnocephalidae. This fairy shrimp species occurs in parts of Southern Africa, notably the Makgadikgadi Pans of Botswana. Other crustacean species found in this region of Botswana in co-existence with B. spinosa include Moina belli.
Moina is a genus of crustaceans within the family Moinidae. The genus was first described by W. Baird in 1850. They are referred to as water fleas, but are related to the much larger Daphnia magna and the larger Daphnia pulex. This genus demonstrates the ability to survive in waters containing low oxygen levels, high salinity, and other impurities, including salt pans, and commonly eutrophication. An example of such an extreme habitat is the highly saline Makgadikgadi Pans of Botswana, which supports prolific numbers of Moina belli.
Moinidae is a crustacean family within the order Cladocera. Species within this family are widely occurring, including North America and Africa. In newer classifications, it is sometimes included in the family Daphniidae.
Paradiaptomus africanus is a species of copepod in the family Diaptomidae. As an example occurrence, Lovenula africana is found within the Makgadikgadi Pans, a seasonal hypersaline wetland in Botswana.
Gweta is a small village in Botswana. It lies about 205 kilometres (127 mi) away from Maun and about 100 kilometres (62 mi) from Nata.
Oroperipatus belli is a species of velvet worm in the Peripatidae family. The female of this species has 28 pairs of legs; the male has 25 pairs. The type locality is in Ecuador.
Moina is a genus of crustaceans within the family Moinidae.
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