Abstract
Wetlands currently have high rates of degradation, with more than 70% lost globally. In the central Monte Desert, Argentina, they are a scarce and limited resource for the biodiversity which depends on them. Waterbirds have been used as biological indicators of wetlands because they respond to fluctuations in food resources and to environmental changes in the short term. Here we analyse the seasonal variations in the structure of the waterbird assemblage from a relict wetland in this region. We carried out censuses of waterbirds in a 6-year period (between 2009 and 2019) during the southern summer and winter. We recorded 1875 individuals of 33 species of waterbirds during the summer and 677 individuals of 29 species during the winter. The grouping patterns of the waterbird assemblages differed between seasons (R = 0.35;p< 0.01). Taxonomic diversity profiles showed greater diversity for all indexes (qD) during the summer. The guild of invertivorous and omnivorous waders had a greater abundance of individuals during the summer (p< 0.05) and, together with the surface-feeding herbivores, contributed to the 87% of the dissimilarity of the assemblages between seasons.Phoenicopterus chilensiswas the only species registered as threatened with national and international extinction. Relict wetlands, such as Laguna del Viborón, still have attributes of community diversity and represent the last refuges for waterbirds of the central Monte Desert. The information gathered in this study will contribute to the guidelines for integrated management plans and monitoring programmes for the conservation of the wetland and its biodiversity.
Highlights
In arid and semi-arid areas, the scarcity and variability of the water resources condition the settlement and development of aquatic organisms (Castañeda et al 2005)
The waterbird assemblages revealed grouping detections according to the season from axis 1 (Stress = 0.13; Fig. 1) and they were different in composition and abundance of species (ANOSIM, R = 0.35; p < 0.01)
Guild structure was different between seasons
Summary
In arid and semi-arid areas, the scarcity and variability of the water resources condition the settlement and development of aquatic organisms (Castañeda et al 2005). The wetlands of these areas are highly variable ecosystems with a great diversity of organisms in an environmental matrix of less diversity (Sabo et al 2005; Minckley et al 2013) These environments are significant in the hydrological and ecological processes taking place within them, such as water storage, nutrient cycling and retention, climate regulation and refuge for biodiversity (Bezabih and Mosissa 2017; Serran et al 2018). In the central Monte Desert of Argentina, the development of irrigated agriculture produced loss and degradation of wetlands (Prieto et al 2008; Benzaquen et al 2017) This is mainly due to the use of water for oases (i.e. areas cultivated by artificial irrigation) and the weather conditions which increase the water deficit in the Central Andes (Masiokas et al 2019). The total loss rate of the wetlands in this region is unknown (Benzaquen et al 2017), it was found that for the Ramsar site named Lagunas de Guanacache, Desaguadero, y del Bebedero, there was a loss of 80% of the coverage in the last 30 years at a rate of -5.9 km2/year (Abrahan 2019)
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