Epizoic communities of Rotifera inhabiting sponges in freshwaters of North-Eastern Poland

The species structure of epizoic communities of Rotifera was analyzed on three species of freshwater sponges: Spongilla fragilis Leydy, Spongilla lacustris (L.) Vejd. and Ephydatia fluviatilis (L.) Vejd. In total, all studied sponges hosted 87 rotifer species. Epizoic communities of Rotifera from particular sponges were very diverse, reach in species and unique. Thus, sponges covering both natural substrates and artifacts may create “hot-points” of rotifer species diversity and therefore may play an important role in re-naturalization of wastes.