The relative importance of natural and anthropogenic effects on community composition of aquatic macrophytes in Mediterranean ponds
Rocío del Pozo A B , Camino Fernández-Aláez A and Margarita Fernández-Aláez A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Area of Ecology, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Sciences, University of León, Campus de Vegazana s/n, 24071, León, Spain.
B Corresponding author. Email: rpozc@unileon.es
Marine and Freshwater Research 62(2) 101-109 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF10125
Submitted: 6 June 2010 Accepted: 18 October 2010 Published: 24 February 2011
Abstract
To detect when changes in response to stressors are occurring, biomonitoring programs require an understanding of shifts in biota that occur in response to anthropogenic and natural effects. Aquatic plants are expected to reflect the environmental conditions of ponds and, according to the European Water Framework Directive, macrophytes should be considered in ecological status assessments of inland surface waters. We assessed the relative importance of natural and anthropogenic impacts on submerged, emergent and floating-leaved macrophytes in 44 ponds in Duero river basin (North Iberian Plateau). Constrained canonical ordinations included 15 taxa of submerged macrophytes and 24 species of emergent and floating-leaved macrophytes. Although the proportion of variation explained by all selected variables was relatively low (37%), we found that submerged community composition reflected the influence of natural (habitat and biotic variables) and anthropogenic effects. However, emergent and floating-leaved macrophytes were not influenced by biotic variables. Variance partitioning showed that degradation category was the best predictor of both submerged macrophytes and emergent and floating-leaved macrophyte composition. However, submerged macrophytes were more affected by chemical variables, whereas emergent and floating-leaved macrophyte composition was best explained by land-use variables. The results of this study support the use of macrophyte communities as effective indicators of the ecological status of Mediterranean ponds.
Additional Keywords: disturbance, habitat and biotic factors, macrophytes, variance partitioning.
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