Making an impact on UK farmland pond conservation

Carl D Sayer,Helen M Greaves

doi:10.1002/aqc.3375

Abstract

Abstract It is of vital importance that aquatic conservation is evidence based, and in the field of farmland pond management and restoration evidence was largely lacking until an article published in Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems (AQC) in 2012. To examine the influence of farmland pond management on aquatic biodiversity conservation, macrophyte and invertebrate diversity in ponds subject to traditional management involving scrub and occasional sediment removal at different time intervals in the past (0–2, 3–5, 6–10 years since management), were compared with a set of neighbouring, highly terrestrialized ponds that had not been managed for many decades. With the exception of Mollusca, significantly higher species diversity was found for managed ponds compared with the late‐succession unmanaged ponds, with invertebrate gamma diversity significantly lower for the late‐succession ponds, compared with all the managed pond categories. The AQC article was a key component of the Natural England (UK Government's adviser on the natural environment in England) ‘Freshwater and Wetland Conservation Narrative’ and has helped with integrating pond management into recent great crested newt Triturus cristatus mitigation policy as well as bringing it to the fore in past and evolving agri‐environment policy. The AQC article provided the evidence and in turn the confidence for the authors and a number of conservation partners to form a Norfolk Ponds Project. Since 2014, the Project has delivered or facilitated more than 100 pond restorations in Norfolk, eastern England, as well as educating conservation practitioners and farmers on the importance of farmland ponds via various events. With good underpinning science it has been possible to achieve considerable impact in the field of farmland pond conservation. This study shows the importance of setting aside time and support for academic staff to translate applied research outputs into practical impact.

Highlights

Created ponds, often many centuries old, are known to be important for biodiversity conservation in European farmland landscapes (Céréghino, Ruggiero, Marty, & Angélibert, 2008; Declerck et al, 2006; Gioria, Schaffers, Bacora, & Feehan, 2010)
In the absence of natural disturbances capable of resetting succession (Sayer et al, 2013), the only truly sustainable solution to this problem is active scrub management and sediment removal. The latter approach is the focus of this impact case study, which examines the conservation impact of an article published in Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems (AQC) (Sayer et al, 2012)
While many species were absent from the unmanaged ponds, especially in the macrophytes and Coleoptera, few species were unique to these ponds, suggesting that pond management was unlikely to lead to significant species losses from the pondscape. These analyses showed that, by arresting succession and maintaining large numbers of macrophyte-dominated early and midsuccession ponds in the landscape, pond management resulted in major benefits for landscape-scale aquatic diversity

Summary

Introduction

Created ponds, often many centuries old, are known to be important for biodiversity conservation in European farmland landscapes (Céréghino, Ruggiero, Marty, & Angélibert, 2008; Declerck et al, 2006; Gioria, Schaffers, Bacora, & Feehan, 2010). Since 2014, the Project has delivered or facilitated more than 100 pond restorations in Norfolk, eastern England, as well as educating conservation practitioners and farmers on the importance of farmland ponds via various events.

Results

Conclusion