An ecosystem service approach to support integrated pond management: a case study using Bayesian belief networks--highlighting opportunities and risks.

Freshwater ponds deliver a broad range of ecosystem services (ESS). Taking into account this broad range of services to attain cost-effective ESS delivery is an important challenge facing integrated pond management. To assess the strengths and weaknesses of an ESS approach to support decisions in integrated pond management, we applied it on a small case study in Flanders, Belgium. A Bayesian belief network model was developed to assess ESS delivery under three alternative pond management scenarios: intensive fish farming (IFF), extensive fish farming (EFF) and nature conservation management (NCM). A probabilistic cost-benefit analysis was performed that includes both costs associated with pond management practices and benefits associated with ESS delivery. Whether or not a particular ESS is included in the analysis affects the identification of the most preferable management scenario by the model. Assessing the delivery of a more complete set of ecosystem services tends to shift the results away from intensive management to more biodiversity-oriented management scenarios. The proposed methodology illustrates the potential of Bayesian belief networks. BBNs facilitate knowledge integration and their modular nature encourages future model expansion to more encompassing sets of services. Yet, we also illustrate the key weaknesses of such exercises, being that the choice whether or not to include a particular ecosystem service may determine the suggested optimal management practice.

How to maximally support local and regional biodiversity in applied conservation? Insights from pond management.

Biodiversity and nature values in anthropogenic landscapes often depend on land use practices and management. Evaluations of the association between management and biodiversity remain, however, comparatively scarce, especially in aquatic systems. Furthermore, studies also tend to focus on a limited set of organism groups at the local scale, whereas a multi-group approach at the landscape scale is to be preferred. This study aims to investigate the effect of pond management on the diversity of multiple aquatic organism groups (e.g. phytoplankton, zooplankton, several groups of macro-invertebrates, submerged and emergent macrophytes) at local and regional spatial scales. For this purpose, we performed a field study of 39 shallow man-made ponds representing five different management types. Our results indicate that fish stock management and periodic pond drainage are crucial drivers of pond biodiversity. Furthermore, this study provides insight in how the management of eutrophied ponds can contribute to aquatic biodiversity. A combination of regular draining of ponds with efforts to keep ponds free of fish seems to be highly beneficial for the biodiversity of many groups of aquatic organisms at local and regional scales. Regular draining combined with a stocking of fish at low biomass is also preferable to infrequent draining and lack of fish stock control. These insights are essential for the development of conservation programs that aim long-term maintenance of regional biodiversity in pond areas across Europe.

Land use, genetic diversity and toxicant tolerance in natural populations of Daphnia magna.

Provided that gene flow is not too high, selection by local environmental conditions in heterogeneous landscapes can lead to genetic adaptation of natural populations to their local habitat. Pollution with anthropogenic toxicants may create pronounced environmental gradients that impose strong local selection pressures. Toxic contaminants may also directly impact genetic structure in natural populations by exhibiting genotoxicity or by causing population declines resulting in genetic bottlenecks. Using populations of Daphnia magna established from the dormant egg banks of ponds located in a landscape dominated by anthropogenic impact, we aimed at detecting evidence for local adaptation to environmental contamination. We explored the relationship between land use around the 10 investigated ponds, population genetic diversity as measured by neutral genetic markers (polymorphic allozymes) and the tolerance of the populations originating from these ponds to acute lethal effects of two model toxicants, the pesticide carbaryl and the metal potassium dichromate. Genetic diversity of the populations as observed by neutral markers tended to be negatively impacted by agricultural land use intensity (Spearman rank correlation, R=-0.614, P=0.059), indicating that genetic bottlenecks may have resulted from anthropogenic impact. We experimentally observed differences in susceptibility to both carbaryl and potassium dichromate among the studied pond populations of D. magna (analysis of deviance, P<0.001). Because the experimental design excluded the possibility of physiological adaptation of the test animals to the toxicants, we conclude that the differences in susceptibility must have a genetic basis. Moreover, carbaryl tolerance levels of the populations tended to increase with increasing agricultural land use intensity as described by ranked percentage of land coverage with cereal and corn crop in the proximity of the ponds (Spearman rank correlation, R=0.602, P=0.066). Together, these two findings provide evidence for local adaptation of D. magna populations to pesticide contamination. Overall, the results demonstrate the potential selection pressure imposed by anthropogenic pollution and provide evidence that genetic erosion in natural Daphnia populations is related to anthropogenic impact.