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Patterns in macroinvertebrate taxonomic richness and community assembly among urban wetlands in Cape Town, South Africa: implications for wetland management

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Abstract

Urbanization has significantly increased globally during the last century and has far-reaching consequences for biodiversity and their associated habitats, particularly wetland ecosystems. Previous studies have focused primarily on wetlands in non-urban areas, and urban wetland biodiversity patterns are currently not well understood, particularly across Africa. Here, we investigate two highly transformed urban wetlands in Cape Town, South Africa, and determine the relative importance and influence of local environmental variables as drivers of macroinvertebrate richness and community structuring. We also determine the influence of local environmental variables for patterns of species turnover and nestedness within and among these wetlands, and provide management recommendations based on our findings. We found that few macroinvertebrate species were associated with these wetlands, yet community variation was driven by a combination of local environmental variables. Our results also indicate that the turnover component of beta diversity, rather than nestedness, was responsible for most of the variation in the overall macroinvertebrate community. We identified two major problems regarding the current ecological state of the investigated wetlands. Firstly, high nutrient loads originating from the surrounding land uses which reduced wetland biodiversity, and secondly, the transformation of these wetlands from seasonal to perennial water bodies. We recommend local and regional scale approaches to limit urban waste from entering these systems, and management of water levels simulating natural Mediterranean-type climate dynamics more closely are required to ensure that the maximum possible diversity can be supported in these wetlands.

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Data availability

All data relevant to this study are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12609032.

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Acknowledgements

We express our gratitude to Asieff Khan for accommodating our field work, and The University of Huddersfield who funded the study. We also thank BemLab in Strand, South Africa for analyzing our water chemistry samples. This work was permitted under CapeNature permit number CN44-31-9870 and CN35-31-9871.

Funding

This study was funded by the University of Huddersfield.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Conservation Ecology and Entomology, Stellenbosch University, Matieland, South Africa

    Charl Deacon & Michael J. Samways

  2. School of Applied Sciences, University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield, HD1 3DH, UK

    Bethany R. S. Fox, Leigh Morland, Ruth Massey & Matthew J. Hill

  3. University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, Cape Town, 7700, South Africa

    Shannon Weaver

Authors
  1. Charl Deacon
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  2. Bethany R. S. Fox
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  3. Leigh Morland
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  4. Michael J. Samways
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  7. Matthew J. Hill
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Contributions

Charl Deacon: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing – Original draft, Visualization, Resources, Project administration.

Bethany R. S. Fox: Writing – Review and editing, Project administration, Funding acquisition.

Leigh Morland: Writing – Review and editing, Project administration, Funding acquisition.

Michael J. Samways: Resources, Writing – Review and editing.

Shannon Weaver: Writing – Review and editing.

Ruth Massey: Writing – Review and editing, Funding acquisition.

Matthew J. Hill: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing – Review and editing, Project administration, Funding acquisition.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Charl Deacon.

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Code availability

All data relevant to this study are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12609032.

Supplementary Information

Online Resource 1

Shapiro-Wilks normality test and Mantel spatial autocorrelation test results for overall species richness, and species richness for Zeekoevlei and Rondevlei separately. (DOCX 14 kb)

Online Resource 2

Cross-correlation plots and Spearman’s rank order correlation test results among % emergent vegetation cover, % submerged vegetation cover, conductivity (μS cm-1), pH, temperature (°C), dissolved oxygen concentration (mg/L), chlorine concentration (mg/L), phosphate concentration (mg/L), nitrite-nitrogen concentration (mg/L), Escherichia coli levels (cfu/100 ml) and faecal coliform levels (cfu/100 ml). Significance levels: *: p < 0.05; **: p < 0.01; ***: p < 0.001. (DOCX 319 kb)

Online Resource 3

Species list of all macroinvertebrates sampled. 1: present; 0: absent. (DOCX 17 kb)

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Deacon, C., Fox, B.R.S., Morland, L. et al. Patterns in macroinvertebrate taxonomic richness and community assembly among urban wetlands in Cape Town, South Africa: implications for wetland management. Urban Ecosyst 24, 1061–1072 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-021-01102-w

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