Abstract
Abstract. Anthropogenic disturbances to habitats influence the fitness of individual animals, the abundance of their populations, and the composition of their communities. Wetlands in particular are frequently degraded and destroyed, impacting the animals that inhabit these important ecosystems. The creation of wetlands during and following sand extraction processes is inevitable, and thus, sand quarries have the potential to support aquatic animals. To determine how amphibians utilise these wetlands, I conducted nocturnal call surveys at wetlands within the Kables Sands quarry, New South Wales, Australia, and within surrounding reference wetlands, and quantified levels of developmental instability (DI) as a proxy for fitness. Whilst quarry and reference wetlands were largely similar in terms of environmental characteristics, quarry wetlands consistently harboured more amphibian species and individuals. Using unsigned asymmetry as a measure of DI, frogs from the quarry sites exhibited significantly lower levels of DI compared to reference wetlands, indicating that quarry wetlands may be comparatively higher quality. Levels of DI within quarry wetlands also compared favourably to data from healthy frog populations extracted from the literature. Further enhancing the suitability of quarry wetlands would require minimal effort, with potentially significant increases in local and regional biodiversity. Documenting species presence and quantifying individual fitness by measuring limb lengths is an economically and logistically feasible method to assess the health of quarry wetlands. Overall, the methods outlined here provide a powerful, yet simple, tool to assess the overall health and suitability of quarry wetlands that could be easily adopted at quarries throughout the world.
Highlights
Humans are altering natural environments at unprecedented rates, with significant negative impacts for animals (MEA, 2005; Pereira et al, 2010)
The precise age of several reference wetlands was unknown, all quarry wetlands were younger than reference wetlands (Table 1)
During the two survey periods, water temperature was similar between quarry and reference wetlands, whereas pH and salinity varied considerably; Quarry wetlands were consistently more acidic and less saline than reference wetlands during both survey periods (Table 1)
Summary
Humans are altering natural environments at unprecedented rates, with significant negative impacts for animals (MEA, 2005; Pereira et al, 2010). Declines of wetlanddependent species are some of the greatest recorded (MEA, 2005). Concurrent with these losses, wetlands are being created to harness the ecosystem services they provide, such as those constructed in urban areas to treat storm water, and settlement dams created in mining areas to store and treat processed materials (Hammer, 1989; Odum, 2016). Typically not designed to support and conserve wildlife, these artificial wetlands regularly attract animals, as they superficially resemble natural wetlands and contain the cues used by animals when selecting habitats (often termed secondary wetlands; Dolny and Harabis, 2012). Dolny and Harabis (2012) observed more than twice as many dragonfly species in mine subsidence pools than in reference wetlands, suggesting that this was due to enhanced environmental heterogeneity resulting from abiotic succession pro-
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