Ecology of Insect Communities in Nontidal Wetlands

Colonisation by midges (Chironomidae, Diptera) of recently-created shallow ponds: implications for the restoration of lacustrine fringing wetlands

“…Adult chironomids are good dispersers (Batzer and Wissinger, 1996) and are often the earliest colonists to arrive in newly created wetlands (Barnes, 1983;Layton and Voshell, 1991). Their life-history strategies allow them to rapidly colonize the early phases of newly inundated wetlands.…”

“…Their distribution and abundance are also accurate indicators of physical, chemical and nutrient conditions of wetland habitats (Johnson et al, 1995). Chironomids also belong to the first colonizers of newly created or rewetted wetlands (Layton and Voshell, 1991;Batzer and Wissinger, 1996;Wrubleski, 1999Wrubleski, , 2005.…”

Top-down control by insect predators in an intermittent pond – a field experiment

“…If the hydroperiod is sufficiently long, this productive environment provides an excellent breeding -and feeding ground for predatory insects, such as odonate nymphs, coleopteran larvae, and hemipterans -highly active predators that consume any prey they can capture, including congenerics (Deding, 1988;Jeffries, 1988;Nilsson and So¨derstro¨m, 1988;Johansson and Nilsson, 1992;Kehl and Dettner, 2003;Aditya and Saha, 2006;Rubbo et al, 2006). Insect predators may reach very high densities in the absence of fishes (e.g., >1000 odonates per m 2 , review by Corbet (1999)), whereupon they may regulate, and in some cases eliminate, their prey (e.g., Sih et al, 1985;Batzer and Wissinger, 1996;Jeffries, 1996;Blaustein, 1998). Many intermittent pond inhabitants grow rapidly and complete their life cycle before the pond dries.…”

“…Many littoral predators are generalist feeders (e.g., Koperski, 1998) and insect top predators are among the last arrivals to the ponds; therefore, high densities of large-bodied predators typically co-occur with high levels of resources (e.g., Wiggins et al, 1980;Schneider and Frost, 1996;Schneider, 1997) which provide them with many alternative prey types. In addition, communities in intermittent ponds undergo continuous shifts in composition, structure, and food and habitat requirements (Batzer and Wissinger, 1996;Wellborn et al, 1996;Williams, 2006) and only species with specialized traits (e.g., broad physicochemical tolerance, rapid growth and development, and the ability to escape pond drying) survive the large fluctuations in physicochemical variables and the disappearance of water (Williams, 2006). Moreover, the developing vegetation increases the availability and diversity of suitable microhabitats for both prey and predators (de Szalay and Resh, 2000;Bazzanti et al, 2003;Taniguchi and Tokeshi, 2004;Biggs et al, 2005;Hauser et al, 2006;Carchini et al, 2007) and may increase the availability of refuges from predators (Peckarsky, 1982;Burks et al, 2001).…”

“…Thus, the invertebratezooplankton-meiofauna coupling in these systems is not well known (Batzer and Wissinger, 1996;Schmid-Araya and Schmid, 2000). Similarly in intermittent ponds, prey preference and habitat selection of predators, and their potential to cause top-down regulation and trophic cascades, are not clear.…”