Effect of initial planting on vegetation establishment in different depth zones of constructed farm ponds

Abstract

Farm ponds can be constructed and maintained to improve biodiversity and ecosystem functions in agricultural landscapes. Understanding the initial establishment process of vegetation in different water depths and effects of initial planting on this process is important for pond restoration. In the present study, two experimental farm ponds with or without initial planting were monitored for 5 years after their construction. These two ponds maintained high nutrients over 5 years from the beginning. The unplanted pond showed a rapid vegetation establishment and had more species and higher percent vegetation cover in 2–3 years than the reference pond. Planting accelerated this process by 1 year. Most of the early established species appeared to have originated from seed banks and/or seed rains. The species and functional diversity tended to decrease consistently since pond construction in the planted pond but increase initially and then decrease in the unplanted pond. The time when species composition between the unplanted pond and the planted pond became similar was delayed with the increase of water depth. Four years after pond construction, species composition was similar between the two ponds at all water depths. These results suggest that vegetation can establish quickly in farm ponds with fertile conditions and abundant seed sources through natural recolonization. The restoration approach for a farm pond should be decided considering the allowed time to success and the water depth. If the main goal of farm pond restoration is to improve species diversity, management practices may be more important than planting.

Will they be back? A framework to guide rare macrophyte conservation decisions in lakes

“…Broadly, there are two restoration approaches for establishing plant communities: natural recolonisation and active reintroduction (Choi et al 2022). Of our three examples, natural recolonisation from nearby source populations may be an option for E. hydropiper at Libo, and natural colonization from the seed bank might be possible for N. flexilis at Esthwaite but for L. uniflora at Barton, reintroduction may be the only option available.…”

The Relationship between Habitat Diversity and Tourists’ Visual Preference in Urban Wetland Park

“…Based on the commonality of ecological indicators and human visual indicators [54,82], more visual and ecological indicators and objective adjustable indicators can be systematically studied in future studies to determine whether there is a certain mediating effect between the three, so as to further explore the relationship between tourists' visual preference and wetland biodiversity, thereby effectively intervening in the wetland more successfully. The restoration of wetland ecological function is discussed in [83].…”