Impacts of terrestrial habitat transformation on temporary wetland invertebrates in a sclerophyllous Sand fynbos landscape

The negative impacts of fire on the resurrection ecology of invertebrates from temporary wetlands in Cape Flats Sand Fynbos in the Western Cape, South Africa

“…Similarly, the only remaining population of the critically endangered Micro frog Microbatrachella capensis in the Cape Flats is housed in the grassy pans of KRCA (de Villiers ). However, these temporary wetlands are also colonised by the invasive kikuyu grass Pennisetum clandestinum and the Port Jackson willow Acacia saligna (Bird & Day ; de Villiers ). As highlighted above, these invasive species are highly flammable and increase the fire intensity.…”

“…However, due to their temporary disappearance during the dry phase, temporary wetlands are highly susceptible to habitat destruction (Malan et al . ), especially in agriculturally dominated areas such as the south‐western Cape (Bird & Day ). Consequently, temporary wetlands have one of the highest numbers of endangered species amongst aquatic systems (Sieben ; Boix et al .…”

Deeper knowledge of shallow waters: reviewing the invertebrate fauna of southern African temporary wetlands

“…None of the taxonomic works specifically report on which oligochaete taxa are found in southern African temporary wetlands, but the megadrile earthworm Lumbriculus variegatus (Müller, 1774) (cosmopolitan species) and microdriles belonging to Nais (Naididae) have been reported in faunal lists from ecological studies of temporary wetlands in the region (e.g. Bird & Day, 2016). Oligochaete specimens from southern African wetland studies are most commonly reported at the ordinal level as 'Oligochaeta' (e.g.…”

“…There are approximately 50 species of leeches in southern Africa (Oosthuizen & Siddall, 2002), but it is unknown how many can tolerate living in temporary wetlands. Bird & Day (2016) reported two species, the African leech Helobdella conifera (Moore, 1933) and the globally widespread H. stagnalis (Linnaeus, 1758) from temporary depression wetlands in Cape Town, SA. Oosthuizen & Siddall (2002) have recorded Placobdelloides multistriata (Jahansson, 1909) from temporary wetlands throughout southern Africa (the species is distributed across Africa), although they remark that the leeches usually enter small temporary pools inadvertently while attached to water scorpions and other hemipterans as transport hosts.…”

“…The genus Ferrissia are freshwater limpets that are found in varied habitats including seasonal pools throughout Africa (Brown, 1994). Although several studies have recorded Ferrissia at the generic level in South African temporary wetlands (Mlambo et al, 2011;Bird et al, 2013;Bird & Day, 2016), species level information is unavailable. Members of this genus are able to partly close the shell using a septum, which facilitates aestivation during the dry phase of a temporary wetland (Brown, 1994).…”