Ponds as insect chimneys: Restoring overgrown farmland ponds benefits birds through elevated productivity of emerging aquatic insects

Lewis-Phillips, Jonathan; Brooks, Stephen J.; Sayer, Carl D.; Patmore, Ian R.; Hilton, Geoff M.; Harrison, Anne; Robson, Hannah; Axmacher, Jan C.

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2019.108253

Cited by 36 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Loss of insect emergence in agriculturally influenced landscapes may negatively impact insectivorous consumers, including spiders, birds, bats, and amphibians (Mann et al 2009; Paquette et al 2013; Stahlschmidt et al 2017; Graf et al 2019; Henry et al 2020; Lewis‐Philips et al 2020). The negative effects of agriculture and insecticide accumulation on adult aquatic insect emergence suggested by our study (73% lower emergence from agricultural than grassland wetlands in 2016; 43% lower emergence over gradient of insecticide accumulation) are certainly within the range previously reported to affect consumers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For riparian spiders, biomass and density near stressor‐impacted streams decreased up to 87% as emergence of aquatic insects decreased 35 to 77% (Baxter et al 2004; Benjamin et al 2011; Paetzold et al 2011; Kraus et al 2014a). For insectivorous birds, reductions in aquatic insect emergence have been tied to reduced return rates to breeding areas and increased oxidative stress (Stanton et al 2018), reduced growth rates of chicks (McKinnon et al 2012), lost feeding opportunities for adults and chicks (Swanson 1984; Lewis‐Philips et al 2020), and population declines (Hallman et al 2014, Stanton et al 2018). Thus, we expect that these losses could lead to similar outcomes for insectivores that are dependent on adult aquatic insects emerging from impacted wetlands.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although difficult to demonstrate at the global scale (Stanton et al 2018), the causality of this linkage can be established for individual cases. For example, local bird diversity and abundance increased around farm ponds when aquatic insect emergence increased (Lewis‐Philips et al 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Cross‐Ecosystem Fluxes of Pesticides from Prairie Wetlands Mediated by Aquatic Insect Emergence: Implications for Terrestrial Insectivores

Kraus

Kuivila

Hladik

et al. 2021

Enviro Toxic and Chemistry

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Contaminants alter the quantity and quality of insect prey available to terrestrial insectivores. In agricultural regions, the quantity of aquatic insects emerging from freshwaters can be impacted by insecticides originating from surrounding croplands. We hypothesized that, in such regions, adult aquatic insects could also act as vectors of pesticide transfer to terrestrial food webs. To estimate insect-mediated pesticide flux from wetlands embedded in an important agricultural landscape, semipermanetly and temporarily ponded wetlands were surveyed in cropland and grassland landscapes across a natural salinity gradient in the Prairie Pothole Region of North Dakota (USA) during the bird breeding season in 2015 and 2016 (n = 14 and 15 wetlands, respectively). Current-use pesticides, including the herbicide atrazine and the insecticides bifenthrin and imidacloprid, were detected in newly emerged insects. Pesticide detections were similar in insects emerging from agricultural and grassland wetlands. Biomass of emerging aquatic insects decreased 43%, and insectmediated pesticide flux increased 50% along the observed gradient in concentrations of insecticides in emerging aquatic insects (from 3 to 577 ng total insecticide g -1 insect). Overall, adult aquatic insects were estimated to transfer between 2 and 180 µg total pesticide wetland -1 d -1 to the terrestrial ecosystem. In one of the 2 study years, biomass of emerging adult aquatic insects was also 73% lower from agricultural than grassland wetlands and was dependent on salinity. Our results suggest that accumulated insecticides reduce the availability of adult aquatic insect prey for insectivores and potentially increase insectivore exposure to insect-borne pesticides. Adult aquatic insects retain pesticides across metamorphosis and may expose insectivores living near both agricultural and grassland wetlands to dietary sources of toxic chemicals.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Cross‐Ecosystem Fluxes of Pesticides from Prairie Wetlands Mediated by Aquatic Insect Emergence: Implications for Terrestrial Insectivores

Kraus

Kuivila

Hladik

et al. 2021

Enviro Toxic and Chemistry

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“…In the current (since 2014) Countryside Stewardship AES both farmland conservation advisers and farmers have been able to draw on NPP guidance on farmland pond restoration and management. In addition, for the forthcoming Environmental Land Management Scheme AES (likely to be launched in 2025 with pilots running from 2021 to 2024), Sayer et al (2012), together with subsequent research on ghost pond resurrection (Alderton et al, 2017) and the benefits of pond restoration for farmland birds (Davies, Sayer, Greaves, Siriwardena, & Axmacher, 2016; Lewis‐Phillips et al, 2019; Lewis‐Phillips et al, 2020) and pollinators (Walton, Sayer, Bennion, & Axmacher, unpublished data), is being used to shape the overall approach and prescriptions for ponds. As Ruth Hall, Standing Waters Senior Specialist for Natural England, stated on 7 November 2019: ‘The research evidence base you have produced has been fed into the development of agri‐environment schemes and it continues to influence them, providing further justification for pond restoration to be funded.…”

Section: Primary Impacts On Pond Conservation Agenda and Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

Making an impact on UK farmland pond conservation

Sayer

Greaves

2020

Aquatic Conservation

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1.It is of vital importance that aquatic conservation is evidence based, and in the field of farmland pond management and restoration evidence was largely lacking until an article published in Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems (AQC) in 2012. 2.To examine the influence of farmland pond management on aquatic biodiversity conservation, macrophyte and invertebrate diversity in ponds subject to traditional management involving scrub and occasional sediment removal at different time intervals in the past (0–2, 3–5, 6–10 years since management), were compared with a set of neighbouring, highly terrestrialized ponds that had not been managed for many decades. 3.With the exception of Mollusca, significantly higher species diversity was found for managed ponds compared with the late‐succession unmanaged ponds, with invertebrate gamma diversity significantly lower for the late‐succession ponds, compared with all the managed pond categories. 4.The AQC article was a key component of the Natural England (UK Government's adviser on the natural environment in England) ‘Freshwater and Wetland Conservation Narrative’ and has helped with integrating pond management into recent great crested newt Triturus cristatus mitigation policy as well as bringing it to the fore in past and evolving agri‐environment policy. 5.The AQC article provided the evidence and in turn the confidence for the authors and a number of conservation partners to form a Norfolk Ponds Project. Since 2014, the Project has delivered or facilitated more than 100 pond restorations in Norfolk, eastern England, as well as educating conservation practitioners and farmers on the importance of farmland ponds via various events. 6.With good underpinning science it has been possible to achieve considerable impact in the field of farmland pond conservation. This study shows the importance of setting aside time and support for academic staff to translate applied research outputs into practical impact.

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“…Water bodies, such as ponds, represent key ecosystems in agricultural landscapes [16], hosting sets of biological communities linked by the dispersal of multiple, potentially interacting species (i.e., metacommunities [17]). Metacommunity ecology is a powerful framework to assess the impact of human activities on entire biotic assemblages, explicitly addressing the role of factors acting at different spatial scales, like environmental conditions, predation, competition, or dispersal [17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Amphibian Metacommunity Responses to Agricultural Intensification in a Mediterranean Landscape

Albero

Martínez‐Solano

Arias

et al. 2021

Land

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Agricultural intensification has been associated with biodiversity declines, habitat fragmentation and loss in a number of organisms. Given the prevalence of this process, there is a need for studies clarifying the effects of changes in agricultural practices on local biological communities; for instance, the transformation of traditional rainfed agriculture into intensively irrigated agriculture. We focused on pond-breeding amphibians as model organisms to assess the ecological effects of agricultural intensification because they are sensitive to changes in habitat quality at both local and landscape scales. We applied a metacommunity approach to characterize amphibian communities breeding in a network of ponds embedded in a terrestrial habitat matrix that was partly converted from rainfed crops to intensive irrigated agriculture in the 1990s. Specifically, we compared alpha and beta diversity, species occupancy and abundance, and metacommunity structure between irrigated and rainfed areas. We found strong differences in patterns of species occurrence, community structure and pairwise beta diversity between agricultural management groups, with a marked community structure in rainfed ponds associated with local features and the presence of some rare species that were nearly absent in the irrigated area, which was characterized by a random community structure. Natural vegetation cover at the landscape scale, significantly lower on the irrigated area, was an important predictor of species occurrences. Our results suggest that maintaining both local and landscape heterogeneity is key to preserving diverse amphibian communities in Mediterranean agricultural landscapes.

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Ponds as insect chimneys: Restoring overgrown farmland ponds benefits birds through elevated productivity of emerging aquatic insects

Cited by 36 publications

References 43 publications

Cross‐Ecosystem Fluxes of Pesticides from Prairie Wetlands Mediated by Aquatic Insect Emergence: Implications for Terrestrial Insectivores

Cross‐Ecosystem Fluxes of Pesticides from Prairie Wetlands Mediated by Aquatic Insect Emergence: Implications for Terrestrial Insectivores

Making an impact on UK farmland pond conservation

Amphibian Metacommunity Responses to Agricultural Intensification in a Mediterranean Landscape

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