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Hotspots of biodiversity or homogeneous landscapes? Farm dams as biodiversity reserves in Australia

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Abstract

In many countries the ubiquitous farm dam or pond is an integral component of agricultural landscapes. In Australia there are in excess of half a million farm ponds, used largely for irrigation or for watering stock. In contrast to Europe, these wetlands are being decommissioned in response to the introduction of government policy that regulates water usage from these dams. They are also being in-filled with expanding urbanisation without consideration of their benefits as reservoirs of biodiversity. We compared the diversity of macroinvertebrates in farm dams with nearby stream habitats on a cool temperate tableland in central New South Wales. There was greater diversity in-stream than in the dams; however, dam sites showed a larger mean diversity and total diversity per site than in-stream. Species recorded in-stream were more frequently represented by single individuals while species were recorded more consistently in dams. We also observed that macroinvertebrate assemblages were more similar to those in the same dam in different seasons than to adjacent dams in the same season. Some species recorded had not previously been recorded from farm dams. In contrast to the general consensus that Australian farm dams are homogeneous environments with a range of common widespread species, we showed that they provide a variety of sustainable reservoirs of biodiversity within the landscape. They also have the potential to provide ‘stepping stones’ between undisturbed and modified habitats, in part countering the fragmentation that occurs as a result of agricultural practices.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the College of Health and Science, University of Western Sydney, for the provision of a Publication Fellowship to support the senior author during the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Natural Resources, College of Health and Science, University of Western Sydney, Locked Bag 1797, South Penrith Distribution Centre, 1797, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Meredith Brainwood & Shelley Burgin

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  1. Meredith Brainwood
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  2. Shelley Burgin
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Correspondence to Shelley Burgin.

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Brainwood, M., Burgin, S. Hotspots of biodiversity or homogeneous landscapes? Farm dams as biodiversity reserves in Australia. Biodivers Conserv 18, 3043–3052 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-009-9623-5

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