Biodiversity and distribution patterns of freshwater invertebrates in farm ponds of a south-western French agricultural landscape |
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Authors: | R Céréghino A Ruggiero P Marty S Angélibert |
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Institution: | (1) EcoLab, UMR 5245, Université Paul Sabatier, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse cedex 9, France;(2) Department of Nature Management, University of Applied Sciences of Western Switzerland – EIL, 150 route de Presinge, 1254 Jussy-Geneva, Switzerland |
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Abstract: | We assessed the importance for biodiversity of man-made farm ponds in an agricultural landscape in SW France lacking natural
wetlands. The ponds were originally created to provide a variety of societal services (irrigation, visual amenity, water for
cattle, etc.). We also assessed the environmental factors influencing invertebrate assemblages in these ponds. Only 18 invertebrate
taxa out of 114 taxa occurring in the study area were common to ponds and rivers indicating that the contribution of farm
ponds to freshwater biodiversity was potentially high. A Self-Organizing Map (SOM, neural network) was used to classify 36
farm ponds in terms of the 52 invertebrate families and genera they supported, and to specify the influence of environmental
variables related to land-use and to pond characteristics on the assemblage patterns. The SOM trained with taxa occurrences
showed five clusters of ponds, most taxa occurring only in 1–2 clusters of ponds. Abandoned ponds tended to support higher
numbers of taxa, probably because they were allowed to undergo a natural succession. Nevertheless, abandoned ponds were also
amongst the largest, so that it remained difficult to separate the effects of pond size and abandonment, although both factors
were likely to interact to favour higher taxon richness. The invertebrate communities in the ponds appeared to be influenced
mainly by widely acting environmental factors (e.g. area, regionalization of assemblages) with little evidence that pond use
(e.g. cattle watering, amenity) generally influenced assemblage composition. Our results support the idea that agricultural
landscapes containing man-made ponds make a significant contribution to freshwater biodiversity indicating that protection
of farm ponds from threats such as in-filling and pollution can make a positive contribution to the maintenance of aquatic
biodiversity. This added value for biodiversity should be considered when calculating the economic costs and benefits of constructing
water bodies for human activities.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Guest editors: R. Céréghino, J. Biggs, B. Oertli & S. Declerck
The ecology of European ponds: defining the characteristics of a neglected freshwater habitat |
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Keywords: | Agriculture Artificial ponds Wetlands Macroinvertebrates Land-use Self-organizing maps |
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