Long-term Dynamics of Biological Diversity in Water Basins
The complexity of the structure of living organism communities can be assessed in various ways, including diversity indices. For these purposes, the Shannon index (H) was used in this work. On the basis of few literary materials and own data, the rates of changes in the number of species and complexity of the community structure of aquatic organisms were determined from the example of macrobenthos communities. The changes considered were described by equations of specific functions that were mathematically analyzed. There were suggested that in the temperate climate and in the absence of strong contamination or eutrophication of water bodies, under favorable conditions, on the average, 12-14 years are required for the formation of the most complex structure (3-4 bits) of benthic animals,. The most complex structure of the developed communities in polluted water remains rather constant, and one can accept these values close. To validate and refine the assumptions, longer studies (than were used in this work (at least 20-30 years)) are required.