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Urban stormwater management ponds (SWMPs) are widely employed for stormwater control, but knowledge about their contributions to urban ecosystem function and service delivery remains unclear. We organized a workshop that brought together researchers, managers and students to assess and discuss current information on SWMP ecosystem function and services, identify perceived knowledge gaps and prioritize research needs, to advance understanding and management of SWMPs in Ontario, Canada. Workshop participants identified habitat provisioning and regulation of water quality and quantity as key ecosystem functions in SWMPs. They also recognized carbon sequestration, flood prevention, water purification, educational potential, human health promotion and community engagement as important ecosystem services provided by SWMPs. Despite the availability of engineering information and practitioner knowledge, workshop participants suggested that information on the impacts of maintenance operations, biological condition, water quality, costs and benefits and impact on surrounding landscape are important gaps that hinder a modern approach to design and management of SWMPs for multiple co‐benefits. Participants suggested current gaps can be tackled with a combination of continuous water‐quality monitoring, field, laboratory and mesocosm experiments. They also suggested that future SWMP studies take advantage of existing community and governmental databases using meta‐analyses to summarize knowledge and provide future directions. Practical implication: By linking knowledge gaps to management needs, this practice insight provides a road map that can be used to advance management of SWMPs in Ontario and elsewhere. Information on the impacts of maintenance operations, biological condition, water quality, costs and benefits and impact on surrounding landscape are important gaps that hinder a modern approach to design and management of SWMPs for multiple co‐benefits.

Numerous studies have demonstrated that dispersal is dependent on both disperser phenotype and the local environment. However, there is substantial variability in the observed strength and direction of phenotype‐ and environment‐dependent dispersal. This has been hypothesized to be the result of interactive effects among the multiple phenotypic and environmental factors that influence dispersal. Here, our goal was to test the hypothesis that these interactions are responsible for generating variation in dispersal behaviour. We achieved these goals by conducting a large, 2‐year, mark–release–recapture study of the backswimmer Notonecta undulata in an array of 36 semi‐natural ponds. We measured the effects of multiple phenotypic (sex and body size) and environmental (population density and sex ratio) factors, on both dispersal probability and dispersal distance. We found support for the hypothesis that interactive effects influence dispersal and produce variability in phenotype‐ and environment‐dependent dispersal: dispersal probability was dependent on the three‐way interaction between sex, body mass and population density. Small males displayed strong, positive density dependence in their dispersal behaviour, while large males and females overall did not respond strongly to density. Small notonectids, regardless of sex, were more likely to disperse, but this effect was strongest at high population densities. Finally, the distance dispersed by backswimmers was a negative function of population density, a pattern which we hypothesize could be related to: (a) individuals from high and low density patches having different dispersal strategies, or (b) the effect of density on dispersal capacity. These results suggest that phenotype‐by‐environment interactions strongly influence dispersal. Since phenotype‐ and environment‐dependent dispersal has different consequences for ecological and evolutionary dynamics (e.g. metapopulation persistence and local adaptation) than random dispersal, interactive effects may have wide‐reaching impacts on populations and communities. We therefore argue that more investment should be made into estimating the effects of multiple, interacting factors on dispersal and determining whether similar interactive effects are acting across systems. Dispersal is central to many topics in ecology including metapopulation persistence and the coexistence of species with competitors and predators. Yet, we lack a full understanding of how dispersal behaviour is shaped by phenotype, the environment, and their interaction. In this paper, the authors estimate the effects of multiple factors on dispersal in a natural context and find support for the hypothesis that interactions among factors are important determinants of dispersal patterns.

Theory has proposed that a trade-off causing negative covariance in competitive and colonization abilities (the competition-colonization trade-off) is an important mechanism enabling coexistence of species across local and regional scales. However, empirical tests of this trade-off are limited, especially in naturalistic conditions with active dispersers; organisms capable of making their own movement decisions. I tested the competition-colonization trade-off in two co-occurring flight-capable semi-aquatic insect backswimmers (Notonecta undulata and Notonecta irrorata). Using field mesocosm experiments and laboratory experiments, I measured components of dispersal and competition to determine if and how the competition-colonization trade-off enables coexistence in this system. This thesis reveals that backswimmer species exhibited clear differences in dispersal behaviour and yet competition proved to be multi-faceted and context-dependent. This work suggests that in active dispersers, there is a great deal of complexity in competition and dispersal. Future studies of the competition-colonization trade-off in naturalistic communities should incorporate these complexities.