Introduction:

Temporary ponds are variable aquatic ecosystems in their physical and biotic structure, ephemeral in the landscape and important in the flow of matter and energy. Aquatic macroinvertebrates constitute the most abundant and diverse group in these ecosystems and need further study, particularly in the tropics.

Objective:

To evaluate the alpha and beta diversity of the aquatic macroinvertebrate communities of six temporary pools during two climatic seasons in Northern Colombia.

Methods:

In Magdalena, Colombia, we did six random trawls with hand nets in the coastal zone, and six zig zag trawls with D nets in the lacustrine zone; we collected macrofauna in three random hauls with an Ekman dredge; and sampled each pond in high rainfall (November 2020) and low rainfall (February 2021).

Results:

We identified 3 358 individuals (13 orders, 39 families and 68 genera). The highest rainy season abundance and diversity (N= 485, 0D= 32) were in Los Campanos, while Villa Leidy Pond had the highest number of common (18) and dominant (14) taxa. During the dry season, Los Trillizos Pond had the highest abundance (533) and diversity (43); while Villa Leidy and El Miquito had the largest number of dominant taxa (16). The pools have a particular composition (no spatial or temporal grouping); taxa turnover is high, and the canonical correspondence clustered by season.

Conclusions:

The aquatic macroinvertebrate communities of the temporary ponds are diverse and have high turnover in space and time, reflecting high replacement of taxa between climatic periods. The littoral zone had a similar composition in the two seasons.