Odonata assemblages in human-modified landscapes

Abstract

Human activities such as logging, agriculture, and urbanization can drastically change and limit Odonata species distributions in aquatic and terrestrial environments. These modifications may culminate in extirpations of rare and resident species and homogenization of community composition across space. This chapter reviews how human land use is (re)shaping odonate assemblages and focuses on the impacts from logging, agriculture, and urbanization. Deeper appreciation and analysis of regulatory mechanisms (e.g. vulnerability traits, species interactions, phylogenetic niche conservatism) and background “noise” (e.g. natural heterogeneity, climate change, historical context) will be important in understanding and predicting odonate community responses to ongoing and future landscape alteration.

Odonata Assemblages in Urban Semi-Natural Wetlands

“…However, studies have shown that different taxonomic groups of aquatic macroinvertebrates respond differently to urban biodiversity drivers (e.g., habitat size, margin naturalness, water temperature, pollution level, aquatic and riparian vegetation, presence of fish or invasive species) [ 5 ]. Furthermore, it was shown that urban ponds typically harbor less-diverse macroinvertebrate assemblages compared to their non-urban counterparts [ 6 , 17 , 18 , 19 ]. These assemblages predominantly comprise widely distributed eurytopic taxa characterized by high tolerance to environmental conditions and robust dispersal abilities [ 20 , 21 ].…”

“…However, if they are polluted and not properly constructed and managed, some of them could represent low-quality habitats where species cannot complete their life cycle. Such habitats then act as ecological traps, i.e., habitats that are mistakenly considered by organisms to be more suitable than habitats with better environmental conditions, increasing the risk of local extinction of some populations [ 19 , 26 ].…”

Use of the Zygoptera/Anisoptera Ratio (Insecta: Odonata) for Habitat Alteration Assessment in Cerrado Streams

“…This, in turn, reduces water oxygenation (Martins et al, 2017) and the availability of leaves (food and shelter resources for aquatic organisms; Brasil et al, 2014) due to increased microorganism activity (Martínez et al, 2014). As a response to anthropogenic modifications, some studies suggest that generalist species replace habitat-specialist species that depend on unaltered environments (Smith et al, 2023). For these specialist species, conservation policies are crucial for saving them from extinction (Batista, 2010).…”