Abstract
Nestedness patterns including both artificial and natural habitat may represent evidence of such habitats’ importance in community assembly and conservation of animals inhabiting those sites. Odonata often colonize drinking troughs (artificial water reservoirs) and thus they are good study models as umbrella species. We investigated if a network of artificial (troughs) and natural (pools) aquatic habitats could create a nested subset pattern for Odonata assemblages. We surveyed all the troughs present in the Castelporziano Estate (Italy, Lazio). Odonata larvae have been collected and identified. Data of a previous paper on 18 natural pools and ponds, and our samplings of 16 troughs were organized into a presence-absence matrix. The Odonata assemblage within natural and artificial habitats is significantly nested with both NODF and T metrics. Odonata species found in the troughs represented 40% of the total species pool. Some troughs interspersed with the natural pools in the nested order: eight troughs were richer in species than some natural pools, despite the big difference in surface area. Pristine water bodies and their area may not represent major constraints for species to oviposit and for larvae to grow. Drinking troughs can be highly relevant for representing refuges in the absence or decline of natural ponds and pools: lacking in top-predators (fishes), they are small “island” habitats that support the generations of Odonata (or other aquatic macroinvertebrates) during dry periods of natural water bodies. The use and focused management of such habitats can be an effective practice for freshwater ecosystems management and Odonata conservation.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Almeida-Neto M, Guimaraes P, Guimaraes PR Jr, Loyola RD, Ulrich W (2008) A consistent metric for nestedness analysis in ecological systems: reconciling concept and measurement. Oikos 117:1227–1239
Askew RR (1988) The dragonflies of Europe. Harley books, Colchester
Atmar W, Patterson BD (1993) The measure of order and disorder in the distribution of species in fragmented habitat. Oecologia 96:373–382
Bried JT, Samways MJ (2015) A review of odonatology in freshwater applied ecology and conservation science. Freshw Sci 34(3):1023–1031
Briers RA, Biggs J (2003) Indicator taxa for the conservation of pond invertebrate diversity. Aquat Conserv Mar Freshw Ecosyst 13:323–330
Brinson MM, Malvárez AI (2002) Temperate freshwater wetlands: types status and threats. Environ Conserv 29:115–133
Buono V, Bissattini AM, Vignoli L (2019) Can a cow save a newt? The role of cattle drinking troughs in amphibian conservation. Aquat Conserv 29(6):964–975
Carchini G (2016) A key to the larvae of Italian species of Dragonflies (Odonata). Universitalia, Roma
Cayrou J, Céréghino R (2005) Life-cycle phenology of some aquatic insects: implications for pond conservation. Aquat Conserv Mar Freshw Ecosyst 15:559–571
Cerini F, Bologna MA, Vignoli L (2019) Dragonflies community assembly in artificial habitats: Glimpses from field and manipulative experiments. PLoS ONE 14(6):e0214127. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0214127
Connor EF, McCoy ED (1979) The statistics and biology of the species-area relationship. Am Nat 113:791–833
Corbet PS (2004) Dragonflies: behaviour and ecology of Odonata. Harley books, Colchester
Craig CN, Reece BA, McIntyre NE (2008) Nestedness in playa odonates as a function of area and surrounding land-use. Wetlands 28(4):995
Cutler AH (1994) Nested biotas and biological conservation: metrics mechanisms and meaning of nestedness. Landsc Urban Plann 28:73–82
Domeneghetti D, Mondini S, Carchini G (2015) Odonata species richness in the Castelporziano presidential estate present and past. Rend Lincei 26:367–377
Fischer J, Lindenmayer DB (2005) Nestedness in fragmented landscapes: a case study on birds arboreal marsupials and lizards. J Biogeogr 32:1737–1750
Franciscolo ME (1979) Coleoptera: Haliplidae, Hygrobiidae, Gyrinidae. Dytiscidae, Edizioni Calderini Bologna, Bologna
Garcia-Gonzalez C, Garcia-Vazquez E (2011) The value of traditional troughs as freshwater shelters for amphibian diversity. Aquat Conserv Mar Freshw Ecosyst 21:74–81
Gaston KJ, Smith RM, Thompson K, Warren PH (2005) Urban domestic gardens (II): experimental tests of methods for increasing biodiversity. Biodivers Conserv 14:395–413
Gee JH, Smith BD, Lee KM, Griffiths SW (1997) The ecological basis of freshwater pond management for biodiversity. Aquat Conserv Mar Freshw Ecosyst 7:91–104
Grandi M (1960) Accademia nazionale italiana di entomologia, Unione zoologica italiana. Fauna d'Italia: Ephemerodea/a cura di Marta Grandi, Calderini
Harabiš F, Dolný A (2015) Necessity for the conservation of drainage systems as last refugia for threatened damselfly species, Coenagrion ornatum. Insect Conserv Divers 8(2):143–151
Hrivnák R, Kochjarová J, Oťaheľová H, Paľove-Balang P, Slezák M, Slezák P (2014) Environmental drivers of macrophyte species richness in artificial and natural aquatic water bodies–comparative approach from two central European regions. Ann Limnol 50:269–278
Kadoya T, Suda SI, Nishihiro J, Washitani I (2008) Procedure for predicting the trajectory of species recovery based on the nested species pool information: dragonflies in a wetland restoration site as a case study. Restor Ecol 16(3):397–406
Manfredi Frattarelli F, Folletto A, Recanatesi F, Maffei L (2012) Realizzazione della ‘‘Carta delle Piscine’’ In: Tinelli A, Folletto A, Manfredi Fratelli F, Maffei L, Musicanti A, Recanatesi F (eds) Il sistema ambientale della Tenuta di Castelporziano ‘‘Le zone umide’’. Accad Naz Scienze XL, Roma, pp 144–158
Matthews TJ, Cottee-Jones HEW, Whittaker RJ (2015) Quantifying and interpreting nestedness in habitat islands: a synthetic analysis of multiple datasets Divers Distrib 21:392–404
Murakami M, Hirao T (2010) Nestedness of insect assemblages on small Bahamian islands: importance of spatial processes. Insect Conserv Divers 3:229–235
Patterson BD, Atmar W (1986) Nested subsets and the structure of insular mammalian faunas and archipelagos. Biol J Linn Soc 28:65–82
Pires MM, Stenert C, Maltchik L (2017) Partitioning beta-diversity through different pond hydroperiod lengths reveals predominance of nestedness in assemblages of immature odonates. Entomol Sci 20(1):318–326
Rodríguez-Gironés MA, Santamaría L (2006) A new algorithm to calculate the nestedness temperature of presence–absence matrices. J Biogeogr 33:924–935
Ruggiero A, Céréghino R, Figuerola J, Marty P, Angélibert S (2008) Farm ponds make a contribution to the biodiversity of aquatic insects in a French agricultural landscape. CR Biol 331:298–308
Sahlén G, Ekestubbe K (2001) Identification of dragonflies (Odonata) as indicators of general species richness in boreal forest lakes. Biodivers Conserv 10(5):673–690
Sakai M, Suda SI, Okeda T, Washitani I (2017) Identifying priority habitats and monitoring species for conservation and restoration of lentic Odonata habitats: assemblage nestedness on Amami-Oshima Island. Jpn Ecol Res 32(5):693–702
Samuel M, Cox SB, Mittelbach GG, Osenberg C, Kaspari M (2000) Species richness species–area curves and Simpson’s paradox. Evol Ecol Res 2(6):791–802
Schouten MA, Verweij PA, Barendregt A, Kleukers RJM, De Ruiter PC (2007) Nested assemblages of Orthoptera species in the Netherlands: the importance of habitat features and life-history traits. J Biogeogr 34:1938–1946
Siesa ME (2017) Le libellule delle Alpi come riconoscerle dove e quando osservarle. Blu Edizioni, Marene, Cuneo
Šigutová H, Šigut M, Dolný A (2015) Intensive fish ponds as ecological traps for dragonflies: an imminent threat to the endangered species Sympetrum depressiusculum (Odonata: Libellulidae). J Insect Conserv 19(5):961–974
Steffan-Dewenter I (2003) Importance of habitat area and landscape context for species richness of bees and wasps in fragmented orchard meadows. Conserv Biol 17:1036–1044
Strona G, Fattorini S (2014) On the methods to assess significance in nestedness analyses. Theory Biosci 133:179–186
Strona G, Galli P, Seveso D, Montano S, Fattorini S (2014) Nestedness for Dummies (NeD): a user-friendly web interface for exploratory nestedness analysis. J Stat Softw 59:1–9
Suhling F, Martens A, Suhling I (2017) Long-distance dispersal in Odonata: Examples from arid Namibia. Austral Ecol 42:544–552
Ulrich W, Gotelli NJ (2012) A null model algorithm for presence–absence matrices based on proportional resampling. Ecol Model 244:20–27
Wilson EO, MacArthur RH (1967) The theory of island biogeography. Princeton University Press, New Jersey
Wright DH, Patterson BD, Mikkelson GM, Cutler A, Atmar W (1997) A comparative analysis of nested subset patterns of species composition. Oecologia 113(1):1–20
Yee DA (ed) (2014) Ecology, systematics, and the natural history of predaceous diving beetles (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae). Springer, The Netherlands
Yiming LI, Niemelä J, Dianmo LI (1998) Nested distribution of amphibians in the Zhoushan archipelago China: can selective extinction cause nested subsets of species? Oecologia 113:557–564
Acknowledgements
We would like to express our gratitude to the Presidency of the Italian Republic for granting us permission to access and sampling in the Castelporziano Estate, and to the Estate personnel for the facilities and help in sites location. We would like to thank Gianmaria Carchini for his help in taxonomic training of FC. Finally, we would like to thank Giampiè from Diga de Firenzuola community for teaching us the right way to catch a sturgeon.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
The work is all original and the research was carried out by the authors; all authors agree with the contents of the manuscript and its submission to the journal; no part of the research has been published in any form elsewhere; the manuscript is not being considered for publication elsewhere; any research in the paper not carried out by the authors is fully acknowledged in the manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical approval
The work is compliant with the Ethical standards of Journal of Insect Conservation. The research does not involve protected animals.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cerini, F., Bologna, M.A. & Vignoli, L. Nestedness-patterns of Odonata assemblages in artificial and natural aquatic habitats reveal the potential role of drinking troughs for aquatic insect conservation. J Insect Conserv 24, 421–429 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-020-00234-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-020-00234-2