Stormwater Ponds as Hotspots of Biodiversity and Biogeochemistry: A Comparison of Natural and Created Wetland Ponds
Abstract
Stormwater detention ponds and compensatory wetlands have become ubiquitous across urban and suburban landscapes to reduce flooding and erosion and improve downstream water quality. These man-made ecosystems inherently differ from natural wetlands in their location, history, design, construction and management. As such, physicochemical attributes, vegetation structure and invertebrate community composition may diverge. These potential differences in fundamental traits between wetland types may have cascading effects which inhibit or enhance the primary and secondary ecosystem services provided by wetlands. To assess these dissimilarities, we studied 20 small urban and suburban wetlands of varying histories including natural wetlands, created wetlands, and stormwater detention ponds. Results suggest that the primary physicochemical distinctions among wetland types are organic and inorganic nitrogen dynamics, hydraulic retention time, and the stoichiometry of dissolved carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus. Further, dissimilarity among vegetation communities reflects dissimilarities in nitrate, dissolved organic nitrogen, N:P ratios and fluxes, and pond bathymetry. In addition, communities significantly differ between wetland types with natural wetlands contributing more to overall vegetation diversity compared to created wetlands and detention ponds; key species driving this divergence include invasive Typha angustifolia and Phragmites australis. Invertebrate communities did not significantly differ based on wetland type; however, the sites that contributed the most to alpha, beta and gamma diversity were natural wetlands. Dissimilarities in the abiotic and biotic characteristics suggest wetland types may differ in their ability to provide primary services such as habitat provisioning and secondary services such as decomposition and nutrient removal in developed landscapes.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFM.B41E2764K
- Keywords:
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- 0404 Anoxic and hypoxic environments;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 0428 Carbon cycling;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 0481 Restoration;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 0497 Wetlands;
- BIOGEOSCIENCES