Testing the applicability of the SASS5 scoring procedure for assessing wetland health: a case study in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands, South Africa

Bowd, Rebecca; Kotze, Donovan C.; Morris, Craig; Quinn, Nevil

doi:10.2989/16085910609503893

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…With increasing pressures on water resources, there has been much interest in aquatic insects occupying freshwater habitats [ 17 ; 18 ; 19 ], as a wide range of aquatic habitats lend themselves to understanding landscape ecology and contribute to conservation planning [ 20 ]. Aquatic insects make up much of the total freshwater fauna [ 21 ], fulfill many ecological roles [ 17 ; 22 ], and have the potential to reflect the physical and biological state of ecosystems [ 23 ; 24 ; 25 ; 26 ]. The aquatic insects that occupy ponds, natural and artificial, in the MPA biodiversity hotspot are poorly studied, yet their diversity is likely to be high in view of what is known for dragonflies in the area [ 27 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Artificial reservoirs complement natural ponds to improve pondscape resilience in conservation corridors in a biodiversity hotspot

2018

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Natural ponds are rich in biodiversity, contributing greatly to regional aquatic biodiversity. Artificial reservoirs used for irrigation can be significant additional features of the landscape. They infill the local natural pondscape, and are attractors for aquatic insects. Here, we determine the extent to which artificial reservoirs represent the local natural pond biota, and how they contribute to the pondscape in conservation corridors used to mitigate the impact of plantation forestry in a global biodiversity hotspot. We did this by: 1) identifying the environmental factors, including plants, that drive dragonfly, water beetle, and water bug species richness, diversity and composition, and 2) determining the value of natural ponds vs. artificial reservoirs for maintaining the population size and expanding the area of occupancy for dragonflies, beetles and bugs in conservation corridors. While vegetation cover was central for maintaining species richness and composition of the assemblages in general, many other environmental variables are necessary to encourage the full suite of local diversity. Artificial reservoirs are attractive habitats to many species, overall increasing area of occupancy for 75% of them (ranging from 62–84% for different taxa). These reservoirs provide complementary alternative habitats to natural ponds, leading to improved ecological resilience across the pondscape. We conclude that maintaining a diverse and heterogeneous pondscape is important for conserving local aquatic insect diversity, and that artificial reservoirs increase the local area of occupancy for a range of pond insects in conservation corridors, and improve the biodiversity value of these pondscapes.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Artificial reservoirs complement natural ponds to improve pondscape resilience in conservation corridors in a biodiversity hotspot

2018

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“…Such knowledge is crucial for effective conservation of wetland biodiversity, as well as for biomonitoring of the ecological integrity of these imperiled aquatic systems (Bowd et al 2006). Temporary wetland systems are of particular significance since they support unique organisms not found in permanent aquatic or terrestrial ecosystems (Wiggins et al 1980, Wissinger 1999.…”

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confidence: 99%

Diversity patterns of temporary wetland macroinvertebrate assemblages in the south-western Cape, South Africa

Mlambo¹,

Bird²,

Reed³

et al. 2011

African Journal of Aquatic Science

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Although macroinvertebrates are potentially useful for assessing the condition of temporary wetlands, little is yet known about them. Macroinvertebrate assemblages were assessed in 138 temporary wetlands in the south-western Cape, recording 126 taxa. However, predicted richness estimates were all higher than the observed richness. Five new species were collected-three hydraenid beetles, one streptocephalid fairy shrimp and one hydryphantid acarine-indicating the current paucity of knowledge about temporary wetland macroinvertebrates. The occurrence of the invasive snail Aplexa marmorata (Physidae) in this region was recorded for the first time. Assemblages were dominated by a few widespread taxa. Only four out of 73 genera accounted for more than half the total relative abundance and only two of these occurred in more than half the wetlands. Vegetated biotopes supported a higher relative abundance than open-water biotopes, but no difference existed between wetlands with one, two or three biotopes, indicating the conservation potential of wetlands with homogeneous biotopes. Wetlands from the different wetland regions did not show a clear separation based on their assemblage composition.

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“…It seems that no bioassessment tools have successfully been developed for estimating the WQ of non-perennial rivers and wetlands. The well-known SASS (South African Scoring System) tool, based on invertebrate families and widely used in South Africa for assessing WQ and the ecosystem condition of perennial rivers, has proved not to be effective in wetlands (Bowd et al, 2006;Bird et al, 2013). Our hypothesis is that invertebrate assemblages will be no more effective in assessing the condition of N-PRs.…”

Section: Assessing Environmental Condition Of N-prsmentioning

confidence: 94%

Erratum: Water quality in non-perennial rivers [Water SA 45 (3) 487–500]

Editor¹

2020

WSA

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Testing the applicability of the SASS5 scoring procedure for assessing wetland health: a case study in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands, South Africa

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

Artificial reservoirs complement natural ponds to improve pondscape resilience in conservation corridors in a biodiversity hotspot

Artificial reservoirs complement natural ponds to improve pondscape resilience in conservation corridors in a biodiversity hotspot

Diversity patterns of temporary wetland macroinvertebrate assemblages in the south-western Cape, South Africa

Erratum: Water quality in non-perennial rivers [Water SA 45 (3) 487–500]

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