The value of small,natural and man‐made wetlands for bird diversity in the east Colombian Piedmont

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Linking vegetation patterns,wetlands conservation,and ecosystem services provision: From publication to application

1. Natural wetlands emerge as the best sites to preserve the diversity of aquatic and riparian vegetation; however, especially in the lowlands, pristine wetlands and aquatic ecosystems have almost completely disappeared through land reclamation and agricultural development. Actions are needed, therefore, to maintain and recreate a wide network of wetlands able to preserve adequate levels of vegetation diversity.
2. Focusing on a complex wetland system located in an overexploited plain, the article entitled ‘The importance of being natural in a human‐altered riverscape: Role of wetland type in supporting habitat heterogeneity and the functional diversity of vegetation’, published in 2016 in Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems (AQC) explored the role of wetland origin and hydrology as the main drivers of physical and vegetation functional diversity, following a hierarchical sampling approach.
3. The main results reinforced the key contribution of natural sites in maintaining vegetation diversity in heavily impaired riverine contexts, suggesting a direct effect of the interannual and seasonal dynamics of water‐level variations in the observed vegetation patterns.
4. The article offered an important contribution to our knowledge of vegetation patterns in wetlands, partly attributed to the innovative functional, hierarchical approach applied which is able to guarantee reliable data on the distribution patterns of physical heterogeneity and wetland vegetation.
5. The findings of the article have been applied and adopted in a series of technical handbooks designed, inter alia, to support the monitoring programmes of habitats of community interest or vegetation of relevance for aquatic biodiversity conservation. In addition, this article has helped to raise awareness of the essential roles played by wetlands in agricultural landscapes and has emphasized the need for a better synergy between the European Habitats Directive and the Water Framework Directive. Several ecological recovery projects have been funded in line with the results described in the AQC article.

     

Wetland habitats of the Sabana de Bogotá Andean Highland Plateau and their birds

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Aquatic macroinvertebrate biodiversity: patterns and surrogates in mountainous Spanish national parks

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Morphological diversity and phenotypic plasticity in the threatened British white‐clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes)

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Collaboration,conservation and the changing face of limnology

• 1. The fauna of inland waters has the highest rates of imperilment of any ecosystems as a result of human demands and catchment manipulations. Thus, the conservation of these systems requires multi‐disciplinary and international collaboration.
• 2. In order to examine patterns of change in collaborative research we examined eight of the leading limnological journals over a 10 yr period, with another two journals examined over 5 yr.
• 3. Of the 9758 surveyed papers, single‐authored papers were proportionally the second most commonly published (N=2523: 25.86%) while dual‐authored papers accounted for the greatest number of papers (N=3517: 36.04%). There was a significant increase in collaboration and a decline in the relative proportion of single‐ (r²=0.71; P=0.00) and dual‐authored (r²=0.54; P=0.00) papers.
• 4. Collaboration between authors from different countries was recorded for 827 of the 8636 (9.58%) papers examined. While there was an annual average of 864 (8.57%) papers involving international collaboration, the range varied from 464 (5.60%: 1990) to 1374 (12.66%: 1995). There was a significant increase (r²=0.59; P=0.01) in the number of papers involving international collaboration.
• 5. ‘Third World’ contributions constituted an average of 7.64% of papers published annually, ranging from 5.32% of all papers in 1987 to 9.31% in 1994.
• 6. Roughly equal proportions of lentic, lotic and marine papers were published over the survey period. Taxonomic and estuarine research was poorly represented probably due to the many specialist journals available for such publications. The data do not support the assertion that there has been an increase in lotic research at the expense of lentic research. Indeed, our data show a significant decrease in the number of papers published relating to lotic systems (r²=0.51; P=0.02).
• 7. The future of collaborative research conducted by multi‐institutional and multi‐disciplinary teams and its significance in terms of the management and conservation of aquatic ecosystems globally is discussed.

Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tracking change in a human‐dominated landscape: developing conservation guidelines using freshwater fish

• 1. To conserve biodiversity in a human‐dominated landscape, a science‐based inventory and monitoring plan is needed that quantifies existing resources, isolates drivers that maintain natural communities, determines harmful stressors, and links ecological drivers and human stressors. A tactical approach is proposed for conservation planning using freshwater fish at the Cape Cod National Seashore.
• 2. Freshwater fish are well studied and occur across environmental gradients. The lentic systems at the national park are relatively pristine yet are enveloped by a region of high population density. Using fish community data, three steps were taken for tracking anthropogenic impacts in a human dominated landscape. First, fish and potential drivers were sampled intensively along a gradient to determine which fish metrics reflect natural communities and which abiotic and biotic factors structure them. Second, emerging and existing regional human threats were identified. Third, these human threats were linked to the potential drivers that maintain natural communities to identify the most informative metrics to monitor and track change.
• 3. Fish communities, water quality, habitat, and food resources were sampled concurrently in 18 ponds in 1999 and 2000. Three common fish species explained 98% of variation in numbers across systems. Based on ecological relationships, pH, depth, vegetation, prey, and community complexity were determined to maintain biodiversity of freshwater fish communities.
• 4. The primary human threats here included: development‐related, land‐use changes; non‐point source pollution; eutrophication from septic systems; and introduced species that are a byproduct of high human visitation. These are common threats in many rapidly urbanized areas and are likely to have relevance to many sites.
• 5. To track the impact of emerging threats to freshwater ponds related to increased human population, monitoring changes in water quality, vegetated habitat, fish diversity, and trophic interactions are recommended.

Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Responses of anuran diversity to wetland characteristics and surrounding landscape in the Southern Andean Yungas,Argentina

1. Modification and loss of natural habitats caused by human activities are among the main drivers of biodiversity decline worldwide. To evaluate how land‐use changes affect species diversity at different spatial scales, amphibians represent an excellent group given that their complex life cycle requires both aquatic and terrestrial habitats.
2. In this study, the influence of wetland characteristics and surrounding landscape features on richness and functional diversity of anurans was investigated in 26 natural wetlands in a human‐modified landscape within the Southern Andean Yungas.
3. The analysis was performed at two spatial scales: wetland scale (the breeding pond structure) and the surrounding landscape scale. The classification of the landscape was limited to land uses modified by human activities within concentric circular buffers (radius = 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, and 1 km) centred on each breeding pond.
4. Generalized linear models were applied to investigate the relationship between environmental variables measured at different scales and anuran species richness and functional diversity, respectively.
5. Pond area best explained the observed variation in both diversity measures, which is consistent with other studies on anuran diversity in disturbed landscapes. In contrast to regression models including landscape scale variables only, integrated models (which included variables on both scales) highly improved model fit.
6. Conservation strategies for anuran species diversity in these altered Andean Yungas forests should include efforts to maintain or restore aquatic habitats (e.g. breeding ponds) placed within suitable landscapes.
7. Successful long‐term management will require an understanding of relationships between habitat characteristics at different spatial scales to identify variables that relate to species diversity in such heterogeneous habitats.

     

Floodplains of a regulated southern alpine river (Brenno,Switzerland): ecological assessment and conservation options

• 1. The fifth‐order southern alpine Brenno River and its floodplains are severely impaired by embankments, water abstractions and the construction of dams for hydropower generation. The river's annual mean discharge is reduced to 27% of the natural flow and the number of small (50–100 m³ s^?1) and medium‐sized (101–150 m³ s^?1) floods is reduced significantly.
• 2. Lateral hydrological connectivity has decreased strongly as a result of the flow regulation, whereas the significance of vertical connectivity has increased. The remnants of the middle and lower floodplains still contain springbrooks, ponds, and intermittently connected channels, which are all sustained by emerging groundwater.
• 3. Aquatic floodplain habitats can be classified partially by faunal composition. The lotic/lentic gradient appears to be a dominant compound factor structuring invertebrate assemblages when considering all aquatic habitats. The exfiltration of groundwater in conjunction with a reduced lateral connectivity enables the occurrence of many stenotopic species.
• 4. A comparison of present floodplains with those shown on historical maps shows that the fluvial landscape has changed markedly. The proportions of functional floodplain units characterized by autogenic succession and trends to late successional stages (i.e. senescence) have increased.
• 5. Floodplains of the Brenno river are still considered to represent important ecological areas and they are protected by law. Whilst the legislative protection of floodplains is the basis for conservation, this does not include the restoration of driving hydrological processes. An annual release of small‐ and medium‐sized floods could generate a diversity of disturbances, thereby promoting rejuvenation and counteracting senescence.
• 6. Alternative conservation options that circumvent ongoing contracts of water use, though generally promising, are limited because of the operation of hydropower schemes. At present the exfiltrations of groundwater mitigate the impacts of flow regulation on the ecological integrity of the floodplains.

Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

水分对湿地生态系统不同植被类型土壤种子库的影响

探讨退化河流湿地生态系统不同植被类型土壤种子库对水分变化的响应机制，了解植物群落的演替规律和退化驱动力，可为退化湿地的保护和生态恢复提供参考。通过水分控制实验（干旱、湿润和积水），在妫水河流域自然湿地生态系统五种不同植被类型的表层土样上开展土壤种子库的萌发实验。结果表明，不同的植被类型对于水分变化的响应模式明显不同。根据其植被特征可分为三类：（1）对于以中旱生植物为主的林下杂类草群落，随着水分的增加其植物种类和数量明显增多。相比较干旱处理，积水处理组植物种类和数量增加的幅度分别为43.8%和249.5%，其中湿生植物明显增多；多样性指数的分析也表明积水处理组其多样性较干旱处理组更高。（2）对于湿生/水生的欧地笋杂类草、芦苇杂类草和芦苇优势种群落，其表现为湿润处理时单位面积物种数和植物密度最低，而干旱和积水处理皆高于湿润处理；多样性水平则呈现随水分增加而降低的趋势。（3）水生的香蒲优势种群落则呈现和林下杂类草群落相反的结果，随水分增加其植物种类明显下降、多样性水平显著降低，但植物数量随水分的增加而呈增加趋势、最大增幅为137.6%。在植物群落组成和相似度方面，本文涉及的五种植被类型皆有其特定的优势植物及结构组成，并和其他植被类型有较高或较低的相似性，并呈现出对于不同水分条件的适应特异性。本研究表明，水分因子在植物群落的发生和演替中起重要作用，是湿地生态系统植被类群演替的重要外在环境因素。