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Biodiversity of wetlands
\"Discusses the variety of living things in the ecosystem of a wetland\"--Provided by publisher.
Book
Connecting Wetland Flooding Patterns to Insect Abundance Using High-Resolution Inundation Frequency Data
Flood dynamics are important drivers of wetland biodiversity. With current climate and land-use changes affecting overall water cycling, many wetland ecosystems are at risk of degradation, affecting biodiversity support negatively. This emphasizes a need for understanding possible correlations between specific hydrological conditions and biodiversity support in wetlands, at least in terms of species composition. In this study, we used high resolution hydrological monitoring of water levels and insect sampling in a depressional wetland to investigate possible correlations between inundation patterns and insect abundance. Our results show that there is a high spatial and temporal heterogeneity in wetland inundation patterns and that this heterogeneity explains variation in insect abundance. This creates episodes of downstream wet and upstream dry conditions. In addition, the spatial variability was high between grid cells of 2 meter’s resolution. There were also indications that distance to stream affected insect community structure. The findings from this work show that that the local hydrological conditions can create heterogeneity in habitat conditions, which in turn lead to refuge habitats for species vulnerable to changes in inundation condition. This study also highlights the importance of acknowledging quantitative hydrological methods when assessing the relation to insect communities.
Journal Article
Wetland Portrayal in Modern Films
Wetlands are important ecosystems due to their high biodiversity and provisioning of ecosystem services. Historically, however, wetlands were often considered hostile or strange by mainstream societies. These views percolated to stories about wetlands. Wetland stories highlighted their danger, physical encumbrance, or antithesis to civilized society. One of the most prominent ways wetlands are portrayed in modern storytelling is in film. Many films have prominently featured wetlands, and mass media has been shown to influence attitudes and behaviors in the audience. However, there has never been a systematic overview of wetland portrayal. In this study, we apply a thematic template analysis to synthesize wetland portrayal in modern (1980-present) films. Using two plot summary corpus databases, we first identified films that prominently featured wetlands. We then recorded qualitative data on wetlands portrayal by watching each film and coding featured attributes. Our broad objective was to determine how wetlands are used as storytelling devices, specifically by understanding basic portrayal information, narrative elements, themes, imagery, and portrayed biodiversity. We also characterized the attitude of the portrayal to the wetland environment, expecting portrayals to be predominantly negative. We identified and analyzed 163 films that featured wetlands. Swamps were the most frequently featured wetland type and screentime of the wetlands was generally a small part of the narrative. Wetlands were most commonly used as trials and tribulations for the protagonist—most notably as physical obstacles, sites of conflicts with the antagonists, or chase scenes. Prominent themes of wetland portrayal included death, refuge, and ostracism. Attitudes of portrayal leaned negative, and half of films had a statically negative portrayal. Despite this relative negativity, wetlands were directly or implicitly portrayed as productive and biodiverse ecosystems. We suggest wetlands are portrayed in films because their quintessential attributes (e.g., saturation, remoteness, biodiversity) are useful to embellish the stories’ dramatic effects. We also show that some historical attitudes and ideas surrounding wetlands may persist into the fundamental components of modern film storytelling. Wetlands may often be negatively portrayed as environmental caricatures, which could subconsciously harm public attitudes toward wetland conservation and biodiversity.
Journal Article
Prediction of Climate Change Effects on Siberian Crane (Grus leucogeranus) Habitat Suitability by Using Ensemble Modeling in Asia Wetlands
The Siberian Crane (
Grus leucogeranus
) is the third rarest and the most endangered crane species in the world. This study aimed at predicting the effect of climate change on Siberian Crane habitat suitability of breeding range and wintering range in Asia Wetlands by using ensemble modeling under future climate scenarios before the year 2050. In this regard, we used 4 modeling methods, Surface Range Envelop (SRE), Random Forest (RF), Classification Tree Analysis (CTA) and Flexible Discriminant Analysis (FDA) to determine the relationships between the species occurrence and bioclimatic variables under the ensemble framework by using Biomod2 and R software. The results showed that the AUC values were greater than 0.9 and functioning of all models was excellent. The Temperature Seasonality and Temperature Annual Range in the breeding range and Temperature Seasonality and Mean Temperature of Coldest Quarter in the wintering range had the most important role for habitat suitability of this species and respectively 105.64% and 136.27% changes was justified in Siberian Crane habitat suitability. Under RCP2.6 and RCP8.5 climate scenario for Siberian Crane breeding and wintering range, it is possible that climate change will cause a 100% loss of suitable habitat in West Sibera, and a 25.28% loss in Iran and China by 2050. The results of this study can be used in planning and conservation of crane species.
Journal Article
Landscape use and Habitat Configuration Effects on Amphibian Diversity in Southern Brazil Wetlands
In this study, we evaluated the effect of changes in natural wetlands on the amphibian diversity at differing spatial and temporal scales. We sampled 10 wetland sites along floodplains in southern Brazil. We classified the sites as reference or altered ponds according to the preservation degree and presence of human impact. The amphibian monitoring was conducted through calling surveys performed between 2015/2016 using an automated recording system that identified the calling male species. We identified 23 species, mainly distributed in the families Hylidae (43%) and Leptodactylidae (34.8%). The altered ponds had lower diversity and higher species dominance. Even ponds with the greatest landscape change revealed a high degree of resilience concerning the amphibian species composition. However, only
Boana pulchella
was dominant in altered ponds and
B. pulchella
and
Pseudopaludicola falcipes
were dominant in reference ponds. A reduction of amphibian richness was driven by the expansion of the urban area and loss of flooding areas. From 1999 to 2016 all sampled sites had their wetland area reduced as the surrounding urban area increased, contributing to the combined loss of habitat and reproductive sites of anurans in subtropical wetlands.
Journal Article
Effects of Smooth Cordgrass Spartina alterniflora Invasion on Macrobenthic Fauna in the Yellow River Delta
Smooth cordgrass
Spartina alterniflora
, as a species for ecological engineering, was introduced to the Yellow River Delta (the YRD) in 1990. However, it expanded rapidly due to its strong compatibility and competitiveness in recent years. It would inevitably present severe threats to native plants and local macroinvertebrates. This study aimed to test the abiotic and biotic responses to the
S. alterniflora
invasion by analyzing the samples of pore-waters, sediments, and macrobenthos collected in different sites following the invasion chronology in August 2018. Results showed that with the invasion time, the contents of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (NO
x
−
and NH
4
+
) and phosphate (PO
4
3−
) increased, while the content of silicate (SiO
3
2−
) decreased in pore-water; the content of total organic matter (TOM) decreased firstly, and then increased in the sediment; the species composition of macrobenthos also changed significantly prolong invasion time, Crustacea disappeared, and Chironomidae occurred gradually; the values of the abundance, biomass, and biodiversity of macrobenthos decreased firstly and increased subsequently with invasion history. Our findings reflect the chronological effects of
S. alterniflora
invasion on the benthic environment and macrobenthic community, which contribute to establishing the linkage between the exotic plant invasion and benthic ecosystem, providing a scientific basis for wetland biodiversity conservation and resource management in the YRD.
Journal Article
Importance of Wetlands in Maintaining the Richness of Morocco’s Vascular Flora
Morocco’s wetlands are renowned much more for their abundance and diversity than for their extent. The vascular flora of wetlands is not properly considered in national programs for the conservation and protection of biodiversity, although the first work concerning it dates back about half a century. This work highlights the overall richness of wetlands in terms of vascular plants. Indeed, around 36% of the Moroccan vascular flora exist in wetlands as specific (ST), facultative (FT) or opportunistic (OT) taxa. This taxonomic richness of wetlands, notable in North Atlantic Morocco and the Rif, depends more on local conditions than on bio-geographical zoning. The various factors that threaten this richness of vascular flora are emphasized in the context of disturbing wetland habitats and alarming global warming, i.e. unreliable database of local wetland biodiversity, inefficiency of development programs and actions that have been attempted, and non-comprehensive decision-making. It is particularly expected that Morocco’s commitment to the conservation of global biodiversity will lead to the development of a sustainable policy to conserve local wetlands.
Journal Article
Investigating Present Status of Floodplain Wetlands as Habitat of Water Birds and its Determinants: An Experience from Lower Part of Deltaic West Bengal, India
The wetlands of the Ganges delta have rendered complimentary habitats to a diverse range of water birds. But human intervention accompanied with some natural factors has deteriorated the quality of these habitats. Present study aims to assess the status of avifaunal habitability of 21 floodplain wetlands, interspersed over the lower part of the Ganges delta by using Avifaunal Habitability Index (AHI). Seven widely used Ecological Indicators namely Avifauna Density, Total numbers of Avifauna, Simpson Index of Species Dominance, Shannon-Weiner Diversity Index, Species Richness, Simpsons Reciprocal Index, and Shannon Evenness Index have been used to compute AHI. The result unveils that wetlands like
Purbasthali
(11.58),
Chariganga
(5.51),
Char Chakundi–I
(4.81) have granted higher avifaunal habitability while wetlands like
Sudhakarpur
(-4.23),
Akandanga
(-3.5), and
Raibali
(-3.29) have revealed perceptible degenerated situation. Spatial variation of the habitability status is examined by Wetland Threat Index (WTI) and size of the wetlands. One way ANOVA-Tukey’s post hoc test exhibits that wetlands with less threat (WTI > 0.08) extends healthier habitats (
p
< 0.001; F = 5.79) and vice-versa. Subsequently, the study also reveals that larger wetlands (> 101 ha) have recorded greater AHI score than the small wetlands ((< 40 ha) at < 0.001 significance level (F = 13.40)). Therefore, this paper not only categorizes some floodplain wetlands based on AHI but also addresses spatial pattern and determinants of such habitability status over the Ganges delta. This study may attract the researchers and policy makers to assess the health of wetlands by using simple composite index in local to global level.
Journal Article
Potential Implications of an Induced Fire on the Demography of Freshwater Turtles
Annual induced fires have caused significant changes in the composition and structure of wildlife globally. These events are particularly critical for species with limited mobility and small clutch sizes, such as small and medium-sized freshwater turtles in the tropics. At the same time, this topic has received little attention and has not been documented in countries with a high diversity of freshwater turtles, such as Mexico. In this study, we report the mortality of the red-cheeked mud turtle (
Kinosternon scorpioides cruentatum
) and the Pacific Coast musk turtle (
Staurotypus salvinii
) caused by a fire in the north portion of the municipality of Suchiate, Chiapas, Mexico. Specifically, our aims were to (1) register the plant species where the turtles occurred, (2) determine the population structure of each turtle species, and (3) estimate the density, size, and sex ratio of the dead turtles of each species. Additionally, we discuss the potential effects of fire on the demography of these turtles in the study site.
Journal Article
Hydrological Instability of Ponds Reduces Functional Diversity of Freshwater Molluscs in Protected Wetlands
Different facets of biodiversity of freshwater molluscs were compared in 21 small ponds located in the wetland area around Lake Łuknajno (Nature Reserve protected by Ramsar Convention, UNESCO Biosphere Reserve). The ponds examined between 2010 and 2019 differed in their susceptibility to periodical drying out. In addition, the hydrological stability of many of them was significantly reduced in 2015-19 as a result of climatic changes (decrease in precipitation, shortening of the snow cover period, increase in the average temperature during the growing season, increase in the frequency of heat waves). The functional diversity of molluscs decreased linearly and monotonically with the increase in the frequency and intensity of drying up of ponds, so it can be treated as a good indicator of their hydrological instability. Other facets of biological diversity - taxonomic and phylogenetic - were unimodally related to differences in stability. Along time, species resistant to desiccation being specialized inhabitants of temporary water bodies clearly increase their percentage, and the share of species less resistant decreases.
Journal Article