The influence of successional stage on local odonate communities in man-made standing waters

Abstract

Man-made freshwater habitats are an important part of the European landscape, especially in areas with mostly absent or degraded natural habitats. To assess the role of different man-made standing waters in anthropogenic landscapes, we surveyed adult odonate communities in a cluster of 20 water bodies including fishponds and sandpit ponds in early and ongoing successional stages. We found 35 odonate species (i.e., 47% of the fauna of the Czech Republic), but their presence differed significantly among the three habitat types. The highest species diversity, driven mainly by the presence of generalists, was found in fishponds. Sandpit ponds in an early successional stage hosted the least diverse communities dominated by pioneer and vagrant species. Specialist species occurred in both types of sandpit ponds, especially those in an ongoing successional stage, more than in fishponds. Although the dragonfly biotic index did not differ among the three types of localities, all four species from the national Red list recorded during the study occurred only in sandpit ponds. The main environmental drivers of local odonate communities included the coverage of shoreline by emergent vegetation, water depth and bottom substrate; the latter two characteristics largely corresponded to the distinction between sandpit ponds and fishponds. We conclude that both sandpit ponds and fishponds play an important role in maintaining freshwater biodiversity that requires a mosaic of habitats in different successional stages.