{"title":"Connectivity of stormwater ponds impacts Odonata abundance and species richness","authors":"","doi":"10.1007/s10980-024-01817-z","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<h3>Abstract</h3> <span> <h3>Context</h3> <p>The successful dispersal of an animal depends, partly, on landscape connectivity. Urbanization poses risks to dispersal activities by increasing hostile land cover types.</p> </span> <span> <h3>Objectives</h3> <p>We investigated how connectivity of urban ponds impacted Odonata communities (dragonflies and damselflies), an order of semi-aquatic insects that actively disperse.</p> </span> <span> <h3>Methods</h3> <p>We sampled 41 constructed stormwater ponds and 8 natural ponds in a metropolitan area. The effect of connectivity and the quantity of available adjacent habitats was tested at different scales for dragonflies (900 m) and damselflies (300 m), determined by a literature analysis, to account for differences in suborder dispersal capabilities.</p> </span> <span> <h3>Results</h3> <p>Lower levels of connectivity and fewer nearest neighbours negatively impacted abundance, species richness, and composition of dragonflies (p values < 0.01, R<sup>2</sup> = 0.18–0.70). Adult dragonfly abundance had a stronger positive relationship with connectivity than species richness. In particular, the abundance of adult dragonfly <em>Leucorrhinia frigida,</em> found almost exclusively at natural ponds, had a positive relationship with connectivity. Connectivity and the number of nearest neighbours had no significant impact on damselflies apart from a slight negative relationship between connectivity and species richness (p value = 0.02, R<sup>2</sup> = 0.11). Natural ponds had significantly higher levels of connectivity when compared to stormwater ponds.</p> </span> <span> <h3>Conclusions</h3> <p>Our results suggest that dragonflies are positively affected by increased connectivity in an urban landscape, with no benefit of connectivity to damselflies at the scale measured. We recommend intentional planning of urban stormwater pond networks, where individual ponds can act as stepping stones, incorporated with strategic inclusion of beneficial land cover types.</p> </span>","PeriodicalId":54745,"journal":{"name":"Landscape Ecology","volume":"52 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Landscape Ecology","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-024-01817-z","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Context
The successful dispersal of an animal depends, partly, on landscape connectivity. Urbanization poses risks to dispersal activities by increasing hostile land cover types.
Objectives
We investigated how connectivity of urban ponds impacted Odonata communities (dragonflies and damselflies), an order of semi-aquatic insects that actively disperse.
Methods
We sampled 41 constructed stormwater ponds and 8 natural ponds in a metropolitan area. The effect of connectivity and the quantity of available adjacent habitats was tested at different scales for dragonflies (900 m) and damselflies (300 m), determined by a literature analysis, to account for differences in suborder dispersal capabilities.
Results
Lower levels of connectivity and fewer nearest neighbours negatively impacted abundance, species richness, and composition of dragonflies (p values < 0.01, R2 = 0.18–0.70). Adult dragonfly abundance had a stronger positive relationship with connectivity than species richness. In particular, the abundance of adult dragonfly Leucorrhinia frigida, found almost exclusively at natural ponds, had a positive relationship with connectivity. Connectivity and the number of nearest neighbours had no significant impact on damselflies apart from a slight negative relationship between connectivity and species richness (p value = 0.02, R2 = 0.11). Natural ponds had significantly higher levels of connectivity when compared to stormwater ponds.
Conclusions
Our results suggest that dragonflies are positively affected by increased connectivity in an urban landscape, with no benefit of connectivity to damselflies at the scale measured. We recommend intentional planning of urban stormwater pond networks, where individual ponds can act as stepping stones, incorporated with strategic inclusion of beneficial land cover types.
期刊介绍:
Landscape Ecology is the flagship journal of a well-established and rapidly developing interdisciplinary science that focuses explicitly on the ecological understanding of spatial heterogeneity. Landscape Ecology draws together expertise from both biophysical and socioeconomic sciences to explore basic and applied research questions concerning the ecology, conservation, management, design/planning, and sustainability of landscapes as coupled human-environment systems. Landscape ecology studies are characterized by spatially explicit methods in which spatial attributes and arrangements of landscape elements are directly analyzed and related to ecological processes.