Abstract
Identification of landscape structures that predict the distribution of aquatic organisms has the potential to provide a practical management tool for species conservation in agricultural drainage channels. We tested the hypothesis that sites with imperiled freshwater mussels have distinct rural landscape structures and are characterized by the presence of diverse fish communities. In central Japan, the proportion of developed land use in surrounding areas was compared among sites with mussel populations (mussel sites) and randomly chosen sites (random sites) across multiple spatial scales (with a radius ranging from 100 to 3,000 m). Mussel sites were characterized by a much lower proportion of developed land (mean 5–18 %) compared with random sites (mean 32–35 %) at a scale of ≤300 m. The areas that met the landscape criteria for mussel sites across multiple scales constituted only 0.23 % of the area that was presumed to have suitable slope and elevation as a mussel habitat. Landscape metrics derived from mussel sites to locate unknown populations had a low predictability (16.7 %). Sites with mussels were located close to each other and had fish communities with higher taxonomic diversity than in sites without mussels. In addition, mussel taxonomic richness was a good predictor of fish community diversity. The quantitative measures of landscape structure may serve as a useful tool when prioritizing or identifying areas for conservation of mussels and fish if spatially autocorrelated distribution of habitat and other critical environmental factors such as habitat connectivity are also considered.
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Acknowledgments
Members of Gifu–Mino Ecological Research Group, in particular Y. Miwa and K. Tsukahara, provided logistical support in the field. J. Kitamura of Mie Prefectural Museum provided us with information on mussel habitats. We are also indebted to two anonymous reviewers whose comments greatly improved the article. We thank the Global COE program of MEXT at Hokkaido University and the Ministry of Environment, Japan, for funding the research. This work was also supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B) to JNN (24710269).
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Handling Editor: Nisikawa Usio.
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Negishi, J.N., Tamaoki, H., Watanabe, N. et al. Imperiled freshwater mussels in drainage channels associated with rare agricultural landscape and diverse fish communities. Limnology 15, 237–247 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10201-014-0430-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10201-014-0430-7