Is there a core set of organisms that structure macroinvertebrate assemblages in freshwater wetlands?

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The contribution of riffles and riverine wetlands to benthic macroinvertebrate biodiversity

Benthic macroinvertebrates collected in biomonitoring programs are a potentially valuable source of biodiversity information for conservation planning in river ecosystems. Biomonitoring samples often focus on riffles; however, we have only partially assessed the extent to which riffle biodiversity patterns reflect those of other river habitats, particularly riverine wetlands. Using a standard biomonitoring protocol, we assessed the richness, composition and magnitude of variation of macroinvertebrate assemblages in riffles across 18 sites in the Nashwaak river catchment, and compared these to samples from adjacent riverine wetlands. Despite containing on average fewer taxa per site than riffles, riverine wetlands demonstrated similar levels of taxon richness at the catchment scale. There was strong assemblage separation between habitat types, and riverine wetlands displayed significantly greater assemblage variation than riffles. Riffles and riverine wetlands did not demonstrate significant correlations in terms of taxon richness or assemblage variation, though this may be partially due to the scale at which we collected observations. Principal component analysis with vector fitting suggested that (log) sub-catchment area was an important factor structuring riffle assemblages, while depth was potentially important for riverine wetland assemblages. We discuss the implications of these results for the use of biomonitoring data in systematic conservation planning, and identify future research that will improve our understanding of the role riverine wetlands play in maintaining catchment biodiversity and ecosystem processes.     

Beaver‐created successional gradients increase β‐diversity of invertebrates by turnover in stream‐wetland complexes

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Prioritising wetlands subject to secondary salinisation for ongoing management using aquatic invertebrate assemblages: a case study from the Wheatbelt Region of Western Australia

Secondary salinisation is recognised worldwide as a threat to aquatic biodiversity. Wetlands in the Wheatbelt Region of Western Australia are particularly affected as a result of clearing of deep-rooted native vegetation for agriculture. Between 1996 and 2001, the Western Australian government nominated six natural diversity recovery catchments (NDRCs), being catchments with high value and diverse wetlands in need of protection. One, the Buntine–Marchagee NDRC, supports approximately 1000 wetlands in varying states of salinisation. The challenge is to prioritise these wetlands for ongoing management. In this paper we propose an approach to prioritise representative wetlands using aquatic invertebrates. On the basis of hydrology, salinity and remnant vegetation, 20 wetlands covering a range of salinities were selected for sampling of water quality and aquatic invertebrates. Of the 202 taxa recorded, most endemic taxa occurred in fresh/brackish wetlands, while hypersaline wetlands supported predominantly cosmopolitan species. Taxa richness was greater in fresh/brackish than saline and hypersaline wetlands, with conductivity explaining 83 % of between-wetland variation in taxa richness. Classification using invertebrate assemblages separated fresh/brackish, saline and hypersaline wetlands, with greatest between-year variability within saline and hypersaline sites. Wetlands were ranked using taxa diversity, presence of conservation-significant taxa and temporal similarity. Mean rank across indices provided the final overall order of priority. Hypersaline wetlands were ordered separately to the fresher water wetlands (fresh/brackish and saline) so that priority for future management was detailed for both types of wetlands. The analysis indicated that although fresh/brackish sites support the highest biodiversity, naturally saline sites also supported wetland assemblages worthy of ongoing protection.     

Soil seed bank dynamics in alpine wetland succession on the Tibetan Plateau

The primary goal was to address several questions with regard to how soil seed banks change in a successional series. How does the composition of the viable seed bank change, and how does the relationship of the soil seed bank and vegetation change with succession? Can the seed bank be regarded as a potential as a source of seeds for wetland restoration? We collected soil seed bank samples and sampled the vegetation in four different successional stages and used the NMDS (nonmetric multidimensional scaling) to evaluate the relationship of species composition between the seed banks and vegetation. The difference of seed density and species richness in different habitats and soil depths also was compared. Viable seeds of half (37) the species in the early-successional stage were found in all the successional stages. Similarity between seed bank and vegetation increased with succession. Both seed density and species richness in the seed bank increased with successional age and decreased with soil depth. The majority of species from the early-successional stage produced long-lived seeds. Seed density and species richness increased with succession, mainly as a result of increasing seed production, and hypotheses predicting decreasing density of buried seeds and species richness were not confirmed. Seed banks play a minor role in contributing to the regeneration of vegetation, and managers cannot rely on soil-stored seed banks for restoration of wetlands.     

Setting reclamation targets and evaluating progress: Submersed aquatic vegetation in natural and post-oil sands mining wetlands in Alberta, Canada

Oil sands mining disturbs thousands of hectares of boreal landscape, about 65% of which is wetland. Its reclamation will constitute the largest wetland reclamation project in Canadian history. We developed a unified analytical framework that we used to set reclamation targets and evaluate reclamation progress using submersed aquatic vegetation (SAV). We sampled SAV in 38 minimally disturbed wetlands to establish a reference condition and compared this to SAV in 25 reclamation wetlands. We observed 26 taxa: all were native and five are regionally rare. Using a combination of ordination, clustering, and indicator species analysis, we identified seven SAV assemblages, distinguishable based on 10 indicator species. The assemblages found in wetlands contaminated by tailings had significantly fewer taxa. Using joint plots, we demonstrate that they differ in terms of environmental variables reflecting depth, slope, salinity, transparency, water and sediment nutrient levels, and alkalinity. Collectively, 74% of reference wetlands had SAV belonging to either marsh or fen-marsh assemblages that we consider suitable targets for reclamation. Having multiple reclamation targets avoids creating a homogenous post-mining landscape with low gamma diversity. Using complementary multivariate and categorical tests, we found that reclamation wetlands failed to support either of these dominant reference assemblages. Instead, every reclamation wetland supported one of five atypical SAV assemblages, each of which was uncommon (<10%) among reference wetlands. The analytical framework we developed can be applied to other ecosystems or taxa to develop targets for reclamation, to evaluate reclamation progress, and to identify environmental characteristics associated with reclamation targets.     

Spatio-temporal nested patterns in macroinvertebrate assemblages across a pond network with a wide hydroperiod range

Nestedness has been widely used to measure the structure of biological communities and occurs when species-poor sites contain subsets of species-rich ones. Here, we examine nested patterns across the macroinvertebrate assemblages of 91 ponds in Doñana National Park, Spain, and explore temporal variation of nestedness and species richness in 19 temporary ponds over 2 years with differing rainfall. Macroinvertebrate assemblages were significantly nested; both pond spatial arrangement and environmental variation being important in driving nested patterns. Despite the nested structure observed, a number of taxa and ponds deviate from this pattern (termed idiosyncratic), by occurring more frequently than expected in species-poor sites, or having assemblages dominated by species largely absent from species-rich sites. Aquatic adults of winged insects, capable of dispersal, were more highly nested than non-dispersing taxa and life-history stages. Idiosyncratic taxa were found in ponds spanning a wide range of hydroperiods, although nestedness was higher in more permanent waterbodies. Monthly sampling demonstrated a gradual increase of species richness and nestedness from pond filling to April–May, when the most temporary ponds started to dry. Although the degree of nestedness of individual pond assemblages varied from month to month, the overall degree of nestedness in the two study years was practically identical despite marked differences in hydroperiod. Our results suggest that differential colonization and environmental variation are key processes driving the nested structure of Doñana ponds, that macroinvertebrate assemblages change in a predictable manner each year in response to cycles of pond wetting and drying, and that connectivity and environmental variability maintain biodiversity in pond networks.     

三江平原恢复湿地土壤种子库特征及其与植被的关系

通过幼苗萌发法和样方调查相结合的方法对三江平原不同演替恢复阶段的种子库特征及其与植被的关系进行了研究。将开垦湿地、不同演替恢复阶段湿地以及天然湿地不同土壤层次(0-5、5-10 cm和根茎)的种子库在两种水分条件下(湿润、淹水10 cm)进行萌发处理。结果表明: 随着演替恢复阶段的进行, 种子库的结构和规模逐渐扩大, 地表群落表现出由旱生物种占优势的群落逐渐演变成以小叶章(Calamagrostis angustifolia)占优势的湿生群落的演替趋势。恢复7年湿地、恢复14年湿地、天然湿地土壤种子库萌发物种数分别为24种、29种、39种, 植被物种数为21种、25种、14种。湿地类型、水分条件和土壤层次均显著影响种子库萌发的物种数及幼苗数(p < 0.01)。种子库具有明显的分层现象, 天然湿地0-5 cm土层种子库种子萌发密度是5-10 cm土层的4倍左右, 而恢复湿地仅1.3倍左右, 且土层间萌发物种相似性系数较低。湿润条件下的萌发物种数显著高于淹水条件, 且两种水分条件下萌发物种的生活型不同。由于恢复时间较短, 不同演替恢复阶段的种子库与植被相似性维持在30%以下。湿地中根茎分蘖出大量的湿地物种, 对于小叶章等优势物种的繁殖具有重要作用。研究表明, 在开垦湿地退耕后的次生演替阶段, 种子库能够保持大量的湿地物种, 通过对湿地种子库与植被的关系研究, 能够为三江平原湿地群落演替与湿地恢复提供策略指导。     

The relationship between wetland hydroperiod and nestedness patterns in assemblages of larval amphibians and predatory macroinvertebrates

Assemblages exhibit nested distributional patterns if the species found in species-poor locations also occur in progressively richer locations. We investigated patterns of nestedness in assemblages of larval amphibians and predatory macroinvertebrates in 42 isolated freshwater wetlands in southern New Hampshire, USA. These wetlands varied markedly in hydroperiod and we predicted that nestedness would be relatively weak because changes in disturbance processes (the relative threat of desiccation and predation) along the hydroperiod gradient often generate distinct assemblages. Contrary to expectations we found that both amphibian and macroinvertebrate assemblages were strongly nested not only with respect to species richness but also with respect to hydroperiod and wetland size, which were positively correlated. We attribute our results to the increased colonization rates and decreased extinction rates associated with increasing hydroperiod, and to concomitant increases in wetland size, habitat heterogeneity/complexity, and possibly water temperature. Moreover, the impact of predatory fishes on species richness and composition of amphibians and macroinvertebrates was relatively minor. We found that amphibians had a significantly lower degree of nestedness than macroinvertebrates, suggesting that a higher proportion of amphibian species found in species-poor assemblages was unlikely to occur in species-rich assemblages of amphibians (e.g. wood frogs and spotted salamanders). The degree of nestedness appeared to be influenced primarily by hydroperiod and wetland size for amphibians, whereas nestedness of macroinvertebrates was influenced by unknown factors (possibly water temperature) in addition to hydroperiod and wetland size. The high degrees of nestedness observed in amphibian and macroinvertebrate assemblages imply that protection of larger, more permanent wetlands may be more important for conserving native biological diversity than protection of smaller, non-permanent wetlands. However, non-permanent wetlands are used by several species of conservation concern that often do not occur in larger and more permanent wetlands.     

三江平原典型沼泽湿地螺类组成生态指示

螺类作为湿地的重要生物类群,对环境变化响应敏感,这使得螺类成为潜在的环境指示物种。为了研究中国东北沼泽湿地不同类型湿地螺类群落结构的差异以及螺类作为不同类型湿地指示物种的可能,在2014年9月和2015年5月对小叶章沼泽化草甸湿地、臌囊苔草湿地、毛苔草湿地、漂筏苔草湿地共17个采样点进行螺类样品采集。共采集到了螺类8科13属17种4452个。研究表明,螺类以扁卷螺科Planorbidae、椎实螺科Lymnaeidae、膀胱螺科Physidae为主;4种不同类型湿地螺的种类组成不同,这些螺类的种类组成与不同类型湿地的水深、植物类型组成等湿地特征是相对应。螺类的生物多样性指数(ShannonWiener指数和Marglef指数)在不同类型湿地之间也存在一定差异,筛选了指示螺类6种,无褶螺是小叶章沼泽化草甸的指示物种,小土蜗、半球多脉扁螺和虹蛹螺是臌囊苔草湿地的指示物种,琥珀螺是毛苔草湿地的指示物种,平盘螺是漂筏苔草湿地的指示物种,这表明了螺类是沼泽湿地类型的重要指示生物。也为螺类生物多样性资源的保护、恢复和生态评价提供科学依据和资料积累。     

Multiple successional pathways in human‐modified tropical landscapes: new insights from forest succession,forest fragmentation and landscape ecology research

Old‐growth tropical forests are being extensively deforested and fragmented worldwide. Yet forest recovery through succession has led to an expansion of secondary forests in human‐modified tropical landscapes (HMTLs). Secondary forests thus emerge as a potential repository for tropical biodiversity, and also as a source of essential ecosystem functions and services in HMTLs. Such critical roles are controversial, however, as they depend on successional, landscape and socio‐economic dynamics, which can vary widely within and across landscapes and regions. Understanding the main drivers of successional pathways of disturbed tropical forests is critically needed for improving management, conservation, and restoration strategies. Here, we combine emerging knowledge from tropical forest succession, forest fragmentation and landscape ecology research to identify the main driving forces shaping successional pathways at different spatial scales. We also explore causal connections between land‐use dynamics and the level of predictability of successional pathways, and examine potential implications of such connections to determine the importance of secondary forests for biodiversity conservation in HMTLs. We show that secondary succession (SS) in tropical landscapes is a multifactorial phenomenon affected by a myriad of forces operating at multiple spatio‐temporal scales. SS is relatively fast and more predictable in recently modified landscapes and where well‐preserved biodiversity‐rich native forests are still present in the landscape. Yet the increasing variation in landscape spatial configuration and matrix heterogeneity in landscapes with intermediate levels of disturbance increases the uncertainty of successional pathways. In landscapes that have suffered extensive and intensive human disturbances, however, succession can be slow or arrested, with impoverished assemblages and reduced potential to deliver ecosystem functions and services. We conclude that: (i) succession must be examined using more comprehensive explanatory models, providing information about the forces affecting not only the presence but also the persistence of species and ecological groups, particularly of those taxa expected to be extirpated from HMTLs; (ii) SS research should integrate new aspects from forest fragmentation and landscape ecology research to address accurately the potential of secondary forests to serve as biodiversity repositories; and (iii) secondary forest stands, as a dynamic component of HMTLs, must be incorporated as key elements of conservation planning; i.e. secondary forest stands must be actively managed (e.g. using assisted forest restoration) according to conservation goals at broad spatial scales.     

Early development of subtidal macrofaunal assemblages: relationships to period and timing of colonization

Colonization and successional development of very diverse subtidal assemblages on rocky surfaces are not clearly understood. Artificial units of habitat (AUHs) made of nylon pot-scourers were used to test predictions from various models of succession. An experiment was designed in an attempt to unconfound the period of deployment (equals age of succession) from the time-period during which AUHs were deployed. AUHs were deployed in two sites, 100 m apart, for 1 month, starting at 0, 1, 2 and 3 months, for 2 months, starting 0 and 2 months and for 4 months from 0 month. Ninety-nine taxa were recorded in the AUHs. Successional change was not due to nett accumulation of taxa, nor simply to longer-term AUHs sampling successive different periods of time. Assemblages developing over the same period were different, but only a small amount of the variability was seasonal. Assemblages converged as period of deployment increased. There was less change from one to two months than from two to four months in the development of assemblages, but some of this was due to seasonal difference between the first and last two months. There were no differences between sites in any of the analyses of structure of assemblages. Few individual taxa showed consistent patterns of changing abundance with length of deployment. Different types of organisms showed markedly different patterns of arrival. The increase in number of species of gastropods was much smaller than the corresponding increase in number of taxa of polychaetes. Succession in these assemblages is complex and variable, but shows some repeated patterns. Fitting these to models of succession is only partially successful and new models are needed for very diverse assemblages.     

Receding Water Line and Interspecific Competition Determines Plant Community Composition and Diversity in Wetlands in Beijing

Climate and human-induced wetland degradation has accelerated in recent years, not only resulting in reduced ecosystem services but also greatly affecting the composition and diversity of wetland plant communities. To date, the knowledge of the differences in community parameters and their successional trends in degraded wetlands remains scarce. Here based on remote sensing images, geographic information system technology, and statistical methods, we produced a successional gradient map of the Yeyahu Wetland Nature Reserve in Beijing, which has experienced a steady decline in water level in recent decades. In addition, we analyzed community composition and diversity along with each identified gradient. The results showed that community diversity decreases while dominance increases with the progress of succession, with the highest diversity occurring during the early stage of succession. Moreover, the community demonstrates greater similarity among subareas during later successional stages, and the similarity coefficients calculated from the important value (IV) of each species are more accurate. Correlation analysis showed that the impact of soil factors on diversity was not significant at a subarea scale, although these nutrients showed an increasing trend with the community succession. Furthermore, the IVs of the dominant species had a particularly significant impact on diversity, showing a significantly negative correlation with diversity indices and a significantly positive correlation with dominance indices. Further analysis showed that the retreat of water level resulted from sustained drought and local human activities was a major extrinsic driving force resulting in observed differences in the community successional stages, which resulted in differences in community composition and diversity. On the other hand, interspecific competition was the main intrinsic mechanism, which significantly influenced the IVs of the dominant species and community diversity. The results of this study could aid in improving the understanding of community composition, diversity, and its successional trends in degraded wetlands.     

Species-area relationship and environmental predictors of fish communities in coastal freshwater wetlands of southern Brazil

In the Neotropics where fragmentation is common, environmental factors structuring fish communities are poorly known. In this study two hypotheses were tested in 13 coastal wetlands of southern Brazil: 1) physical features (such as wetland area, habitat diversity, water depth and temperature, and water and sediment chemistry) are important determinants of richness, density and composition of fish assemblages; and 2) species richness and composition of fish assemblages differ between wetlands with different hydroperiods (i.e. permanent versus intermittent). A total of 1,597 individuals distributed among 20 species were collected. Richness was positively associated with wetland area and water depth and it was negatively associated with water conductivity. The species-area power function explained 27.3% of the variation in richness. Fish richness was similar between permanent and intermittent wetlands. The density was negatively associated with water depth and temperature, and it was positively correlated with water nitrate concentration. The first three axes from the CCA accounted for 55.5% of total variation in fish composition. The most important variables related to fish composition were percentage of sediment organic matter, phosphorus concentration, habitat diversity and water depth. Composition of fish species changed among permanent and intermittent wetlands. Understanding the environmental factors that shape and maintain the biodiversity in these ecosystems is essential to develop conservation and management programs of wetlands in this region, where more than 90% of wetland systems have already been lost due to anthropogenic activities.     

Do bacterial and fungal communities assemble differently during primary succession?

High‐throughput sequencing technologies are now allowing us to study patterns of community assembly for diverse microbial assemblages across environmental gradients and during succession. Here we discuss potential explanations for similarities and differences in bacterial and fungal community assembly patterns along a soil chronosequence in the foreland of a receding glacier. Although the data are not entirely conclusive, they do indicate that successional trajectories for bacteria and fungi may be quite different. Recent empirical and theoretical studies indicate that smaller microbes (like most bacteria) are less likely to be dispersal limited than are larger microbes – which could result in a more deterministic community assembly pattern for bacteria during primary succession. Many bacteria are also better adapted (than are fungi) to life in barren, early‐successional sediments in that some can fix nitrogen and carbon from the atmosphere – traits not possessed by any fungi. Other differences between bacteria and fungi are discussed, but it is apparent from this and other recent studies of microbial succession that we are a long way from understanding the mechanistic underpinnings of microbial community assembly during ecosystem succession. We especially need a better understanding of global and regional patterns of microbial dispersal and what environmental factors control the development of microbial communities in complex natural systems.     

Testing a Passive Revegetation Approach for Restoring Coastal Plain Depression Wetlands

Restoration of coastal plain depressions, a biologically significant and threatened wetland type of the southeastern United States, has received little systematic research. Within the context of an experimental project designed to evaluate several restoration approaches, we tested whether successful revegetation can be achieved by passive methods (recruitment from seed banks or seed dispersal) that allow for wetland "self-design" in response to hydrologic recovery. For 16 forested depressions that historically had been drained and altered, drainage ditches were plugged to reestablish natural ponding regimes, and the successional forest was harvested to open the sites and promote establishment of emergent wetland vegetation. We sampled seed bank and vegetation composition 1 year before restoration and monitored vegetation response for 3 years after. Following forest removal and ditch plugging, the restored wetlands quickly developed a dense cover of herbaceous plant species, of which roughly half were wetland species. Seed banks were a major source of wetland species for early revegetation. However, hydrologic recovery was slowed by a prolonged drought, which allowed nonwetland plant species to establish from seed banks and dispersal or to regrow after site harvest. Some nonwetland species were later suppressed by ponded conditions in the third year, but resprouting woody plants persisted and could alter the future trajectory of revegetation. Some characteristic wetland species were largely absent in the restored sites, indicating that passive methods may not fully replicate the composition of reference systems. Passive revegetation was partially successful, but regional droughts present inherent challenges to restoring depressional wetlands whose hydrologic regimes are strongly controlled by rainfall variability.     

Combining environmental niche models,multi-grain analyses,and species traits identifies pervasive effects of land use on butterfly biodiversity across Italy

Understanding how species respond to human activities is paramount to ecology and conservation science, one outstanding question being how large-scale patterns in land use affect biodiversity. To facilitate answering this question, we propose a novel analytical framework that combines environmental niche models, multi-grain analyses, and species traits. We illustrate the framework capitalizing on the most extensive dataset compiled to date for the butterflies of Italy (106,514 observations for 288 species), assessing how agriculture and urbanization have affected biodiversity of these taxa from landscape to regional scales (3–48 km grains) across the country while accounting for its steep climatic gradients. Multiple lines of evidence suggest pervasive and scale-dependent effects of land use on butterflies in Italy. While land use explained patterns in species richness primarily at grains ≤12 km, idiosyncratic responses in species highlighted “winners” and “losers” across human-dominated regions. Detrimental effects of agriculture and urbanization emerged from landscape (3-km grain) to regional (48-km grain) scales, disproportionally affecting small butterflies and butterflies with a short flight curve. Human activities have therefore reorganized the biogeography of Italian butterflies, filtering out species with poor dispersal capacity and narrow niche breadth not only from local assemblages, but also from regional species pools. These results suggest that global conservation efforts neglecting large-scale patterns in land use risk falling short of their goals, even for taxa typically assumed to persist in small natural areas (e.g., invertebrates). Our study also confirms that consideration of spatial scales will be crucial to implementing effective conservation actions in the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. In this context, applications of the proposed analytical framework have broad potential to identify which mechanisms underlie biodiversity change at different spatial scales.     

The importance of small-scale heterogeneity in boreal forests: variation in diversity in forest-floor invertebrates across the succession gradient

Heterogeneity in species assemblages of forest-floor arthropods — carabid beetles, ants and spiders — within and between different forest age classes was studied in the southern Finnish taiga. The importance of processes operating on the local scale (within the movement radius of the species) vs on the regional scale (among forest stands) in determining the observed variation was assessed. Four data sets with different spatial resolutions in mesic forests in the same general study area were used. The material consists of 18 283 carabids of 51 species, 48 769 spiders of 212 species, and 126 718 worker ants of 23 species. Analyses of abundance variation and species complementarity among successional stages revealed that in all the three taxa species occurring in the mature forest were prevalent in the younger successional stages as well, constituting more than half of the catch in any age class. A great majority of carabid and spider species were widely distributed across the forest age classes, whereas ants include a higher proportion of species with a narrower amplitude across the succession gradient. Comparisons of similarity between samples at increasing distance from one another on the local scale within forest stands (a few tens of meters to a few hundreds of meters) showed a quite consistent pattern in carabids and spiders: there was more variation between sampling sites in young successional forests than in the mature forest. Furthermore, only in the mature forest a slight, albeit statistically not significant, negative relationship between similarity of samples and distance between sampling sites was detected. In carabids and spiders, comparisons between samples located at a distance of 10–15 m from each other showed considerable heterogeneity, the mean percentage similarity being c. 0.6 (in ants c. 0.8). On the regional scale, systematic variation between young and mature forest stands is a major element increasing the total diversity (species turnover c. 50% in carabids and spiders; compositional similarity c. 0.3–0.4 in carabids, 0.2–0.3 in spiders), but variation within forest stands on a spatial scale of 10–15 meters is another important component in the total heterogeneity. The results suggest that regional abundance variation is a primary factor influencing the composition of local assemblages; a set of hypotheses elaborating this conclusion is formulated. The result implies that maintenance of habitat heterogeneity on a small scale (10–15 m) is needed to preserve biodiversity in managed forests.     

Flow intermittency decreases nestedness and specialisation of diatom communities in Mediterranean rivers

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Midsummer zooplankton assemblages in four types of wetlands in the Upper Midwest,USA

The objective of this study was to characterize the zooplankton and phytoplankton assemblages of four different types of wetlands and to evaluate their use as environmental indicators. Total abundances, community composition, and species diversity were evaluated for zooplankton and phytoplankton assemblages from 24 wetlands and related to water quality variables. During August 1995, six representative sites were sampled from four types of wetlands designated as constructed, impacted, non-impacted, or temporary. The plankton assemblages of all wetlands were dominated by cosmopolitan crustacean, rotifer, and phytoplankton taxa typical of lake plankton communities. Species diversity, richness, and evenness of zooplankton and phytoplankton assemblages did not differ significantly among the wetland types. Total zooplankton abundance was significantly (p < 0.01) related to chlorophyll a and total phosphorus concentrations over the range of trophic conditions. Mean zooplankton densities and phytoplankton biovolumes were similar among the wetlands, however, the relative abundances of major zooplankton groups differed among the wetland types. Cyanophytes, primarily Oscillatoria spp., were a major component of the phytoplankton across all four wetland types, and were significantly more abundant within the constructed and temporary sites. On average, rotifers accounted for 79% of total zooplankton abundance within the constructed wetlands and were much less dominant in the non-impacted and temporary wetlands. Cladoceran, copepodite, and adult copepod concentrations were low in the constructed and impacted wetlands and increased in the non-impacted and temporary wetlands in conjunction with increased chlorophytes and cryptophytes. Our preliminary survey suggests that abiotic factors which are known to directly affect phytoplankton may indirectly affect zooplankton composition in such a way as to use zooplankton assemblages as indicators of water quality. However, further study incorporating seasonal dynamics and the influence of predators on zooplankton assemblages is needed to fully assess the use of zooplankton community composition as an environmental indicator for wetland systems. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.