Comparison of macroinvertebrate community structure and driving environmental factors in natural and wastewater treatment ponds

Abstract

Eutrophication still continues to be an issue of major concern for the protection of water quality, and accordingly, the European Union Water Framework Directive has set a minimum target for all waters where ''good status'' is defined as a slight departure from the biological community which would be expected in conditions of minimal anthropogenic impact. The use of constructed ponds for wastewater treatment aimed at achieving this target has shown to be an effective alternative to conventional systems in the farm landscape. Their applicability in these areas is of great interest since these ponds have the added potential to combine their wastewater treatment properties with that of biodiversity enhancement. This article focuses on exploring the community structure of both natural and constructed ponds used for wastewater treatment and the driving environmental factors. A total of 15 constructed and 5 natural ponds were sampled for aquatic macroinvertebrates and hydrochemistry in spring and summer 2006. Results showed that the most important factors responsible for the differences in the community structure between these two types of ponds were pH, vegetation structure and pollution levels. These gradients helped to structure a large proportion of the communities with some taxa being associated with the constructed ponds. These results highlight the potential contribution of constructed ponds used for wastewater treatment to the landscape biodiversity. The present findings also open the possibility for a more integrated management of water quality and biodiversity enhancement in farmland areas.

Macroinvertebrate assemblages and biodiversity levels: ecological role of constructed wetlands and artificial ponds in a natural park

“…Miguel-Chinchilla et al (2014) have recently demonstrated that environmental factors better explain the pond biodiversity than pond age, influencing the number and type of taxa that are able to colonize man-made ponds. However, the creation of constructed wetlands has the potential to provide a habitat that may be unavailable within the surrounding landscape (Becerra-Jurado et al, 2009). Thus, a more integrated management of water quality and biodiversity enhancement, as suggested by the integrated constructed wetlands concept (Harrington and Ryder, 2002;Harrington et al, 2005;Scholz et al 2007), is required.…”

“…Research on constructed wetlands has most frequently been addressed to evaluate their efficacy in pollution removal and flood mitigation, with less attention to their role as ecosystems (Mitsch et al, 1998;Spieles et al, 2006). Only a few studies (Spieles and Mitsch, 2000;Fairchild et al, 2000;Balcombe et al, 2005;Becerra-Jurado et al, 2009;Gallardo et al, 2012) have analysed the macroinvertebrate communities of constructed wetlands and the environmental factors that influence them. A deeper knowledge of the biodiversity hosted in these environments is needed to determine if artificially created ponds and constructed wetlands are also appropriate restoration tools for biological conservation (Ruhí et al, 2009).…”

Ponds and the importance of their history: an audit of pond numbers, turnover and the relationship between the origins of ponds and their contemporary plant communities in south-east Northumberland, UK

“…In addition to these older pond types more recent constructed wetlands have also proved valuable for wildlife, e.g. motorway stormwater retention ponds (Scher and Theiry, 2005) and farm wastewater treatment systems (Becerra-Jurado et al, 2009). Our changing patterns of land use continue to create new pond types.…”

Ecological Drivers of Cladoceran Diversity in the Central European City (Łódź, Poland): Effects of Urbanisation and Size of the Waterbody

“…The results of this study demonstrate that at a landscape-scale, different environmental factors influenced invertebrate communities in meadow (physicochemical and spatial) and urban (biological and physicochemical) environments (Table 7.10) and will be discussed in greater detail below. The results from this study (Figure 7.1,7.4,7.7) demonstrate that the greatest macroinvertebrate diversities within ponds at regional and landscape scales were associated with greater connectivity, proximity to other waterbodies, increased pond area and aquatic macrophyte cover, whilst the lowest diversities were associated with the drying of the pond basin) Biggs et al, 2005;Della Bella et al, 2005;Williams et al, 2008;Becerra-Jurado et al, 2009;Bazzanti et al, 2010). SP+B|P (%) 1.9 n/a n/a 0.4 P+B+SP (%) 0 n/a n/a 1.8…”