TY - JOUR
T1 - The influence of urbanisation on macroinvertebrate biodiversity in constructed stormwater wetlands
AU - MacKinstosh, T
AU - THOMPSON, Ross
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was sponsored in part with grants from the Australian Geographic, Holsworth Wildlife Endowment ( Monash University file No. CF11/2538 ) and the Faculty of Science, Monash University (Postgraduate research funds). We would like to thank Melbourne Water for allowing access to locations, and especially the help received from Will Steele. Vince Pettigrove from CAPIM provided guidance with choosing the western sites and Chris Walsh from Melbourne University provided advice regarding the use of the TI data. Melissa Bedggood, Melissa Klamt, Adrian Dusting, Laura Caffrey, Phil De Zylva, Susie Ho, Miles Jennings, Shin Maki, Thai Lap Chieu, Jeffrey Millott, Christina Siomos, Rowan Jacques-Hamilton, Simon Lim, Emma Tew, Tessa Smith, Christopher McCormack, Danelle Scicluna, Ben O'Leary, Isaac Gravolin, Adam Bruce, Harry Barton, Sarah Fialkowski, Patrick Tucker, Amy Matthews, Kelsey Tucker, Andej Hohmann, Amber Fordyce, Md Islam, Kevin Lam, Vivienne Bonnell, Lachlan Judd, Amelia Pegg, Campbell Sewell, Tiffany Miller-Scott, Matthew Simpson, Sarah-Anne Femino, Susannah Louise Cross-Babos, Dylan John Benis, Shennai Gina Palermo, Campbell Sewell, Hannah Glasson, Celine Lee Fook Chin, Danelle Scicluna, Evatt Chirgwin, and Thomas Edward Wilkins provided assistance with field work and laboratory work. Chris Johnstone, Darren Gilling, and Sally Hladyz provided assistance with data analysis, and Claire Csihar-Gardiner and Sophie Mackintosh assisted with proofreading. Thanks to Seth Wenger and two anonymous reviewers for detailed comments and feedback. The facilities and support of the School of Biological Sciences, Monash University are also gratefully acknowledged. RT was funded by an ARC Future Fellowship ( FT110100957 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier B.V..
PY - 2015/12/1
Y1 - 2015/12/1
N2 - The construction of wetlands in urban environments is primarily carried out to assist in the removal of contaminants from wastewaters; however, these wetlands have the added benefit of providing habitat for aquatic invertebrates, fish and waterbirds. Stormwater quantity and quality is directly related to impervious area (roads, sealed areas, roofs) in the catchment. As a consequence, it would be expected that impervious area would be related to contaminant load and biodiversity in receiving waters such as urban wetlands. This study aimed to establish whether the degree of urbanisation and its associated changes to stormwater runoff affected macroinvertebrate richness and abundance within constructed wetlands. Urban wetlands in Melbourne's west and south east were sampled along a gradient of urbanisation. There was a significant negative relationship between total imperviousness (TI) and the abundance of aquatic invertebrates detected for sites in the west, but not in the south east. However macroinvertebrate communities were relatively homogenous both within and between all study wetlands. Chironomidae (non-biting midges) was the most abundant family recorded at the majority of sites. Chironomids are able to tolerate a wide array of environmental conditions, including eutrophic and anoxic conditions. Their prevalence suggests that water quality is impaired in these systems, regardless of degree of urbanisation, although the causal mechanism is unclear. These results show some dependency between receiving wetland condition and the degree of urbanisation of the catchment, but suggest that other factors may be as important in determining the value of urban wetlands as habitat for wildlife.
AB - The construction of wetlands in urban environments is primarily carried out to assist in the removal of contaminants from wastewaters; however, these wetlands have the added benefit of providing habitat for aquatic invertebrates, fish and waterbirds. Stormwater quantity and quality is directly related to impervious area (roads, sealed areas, roofs) in the catchment. As a consequence, it would be expected that impervious area would be related to contaminant load and biodiversity in receiving waters such as urban wetlands. This study aimed to establish whether the degree of urbanisation and its associated changes to stormwater runoff affected macroinvertebrate richness and abundance within constructed wetlands. Urban wetlands in Melbourne's west and south east were sampled along a gradient of urbanisation. There was a significant negative relationship between total imperviousness (TI) and the abundance of aquatic invertebrates detected for sites in the west, but not in the south east. However macroinvertebrate communities were relatively homogenous both within and between all study wetlands. Chironomidae (non-biting midges) was the most abundant family recorded at the majority of sites. Chironomids are able to tolerate a wide array of environmental conditions, including eutrophic and anoxic conditions. Their prevalence suggests that water quality is impaired in these systems, regardless of degree of urbanisation, although the causal mechanism is unclear. These results show some dependency between receiving wetland condition and the degree of urbanisation of the catchment, but suggest that other factors may be as important in determining the value of urban wetlands as habitat for wildlife.
KW - Constructed wetlands
KW - Homogenization
KW - Macroinvertebrates
KW - Stormwater
KW - Water quality
KW - Wetland management
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84938309892&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.07.066
DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.07.066
M3 - Article
SN - 0048-9697
VL - 536
SP - 527
EP - 537
JO - Science of the Total Environment
JF - Science of the Total Environment
ER -