Patterns in the organization of Cerrado pond biodiversity in Brazilian pasture landscapes

There is a worldwide concern on the loss of pond biodiversity in human dominated landscapes. Nevertheless, agricultural activities appear to increase pond number in the Brazilian Cerrado through damming streams for cattle raising. These man-made ponds may represent important landscape features, but...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Hydrobiologia 2014-02, Vol.723 (1), p.87-101
Main Authors: De Marco, Paulo, Nogueira, Denis Silva, Correa, Caroline Costa, Vieira, Thiago Bernardi, Silva, Karina Dias, Pinto, Nelson Silva, Bichsel, David, Hirota, Andrezza Sayuri Victoriano, Vieira, Raísa Romênia Silva, Carneiro, Fernanda Melo, de Oliveira, Arthur A. Bispo, Carvalho, Priscilla, Bastos, Rogério Pereira, Ilg, Christiane, Oertli, Beat
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural land
Algae
Amphibians
Analysis
Aquatic plants
Biodiversity
Biological diversity
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Birds
Cattle raising
Ecology
Freshwater & Marine Ecology
Heterogeneity
Landscape ecology
Life Sciences
Odonata
Pasture
Pastures
Ponds
Species richness
The Role of Ponds
Zoology
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Summary:There is a worldwide concern on the loss of pond biodiversity in human dominated landscapes. Nevertheless, agricultural activities appear to increase pond number in the Brazilian Cerrado through damming streams for cattle raising. These man-made ponds may represent important landscape features, but their importance to regional biodiversity has not yet been studied. Here, we evaluated differences in alpha and beta diversity under a multi-taxonomic approach, as well as tested pond size as the main driver of local species richness. We also assessed the importance of environmental heterogeneity through the analysis of the regional species accumulation curves (SAC). The overall result suggests that species turnover was the major component of regional biodiversity for all groups. Major physical and chemical water conditions had no effects on algae, macrophytes, water bugs, and birds species richness. Pond size had a significant effect on Odonata and fish species richness, while water beetles and amphibians were influenced by trophic conditions. Results from regional SAC show variations among different taxonomic groups regarding landscape heterogeneity: only algae, fish, and birds do not reached to an asymptote and had higher z -values. Our results highlight the importance of ponds for biodiversity conservation in increasingly agricultural landscapes in central Brazil.
ISSN:0018-8158
1573-5117
DOI:10.1007/s10750-013-1695-2