How much information do we gain from multiple-year sampling in natural pond research?
- Natural ponds are perceived as spatially and temporally highly variable ecosystems. This perception is in contrast to the often-applied sampling design with high spatial but low temporal replication. Based on a data set covering a period of six years and 20 permanently to periodically inundated ponds, we investigated whether this widely applied sampling design is sufficient to identify differences between single ponds or single years with regard to water quality and macrophyte community composition as measures of ecosystem integrity. In our study, the factor "pond", which describes differences between individual ponds, explained 56 % and 63 %, respectively, of the variance in water quality and macrophyte composition. In contrast, the factor "year" that refers to changes between individual years, contributed less to understand the observed variability in water quality and macrophyte composition (10 % and 7 % respectively, of the variance explained). The low explanation of variance for "year" and the low year-to-year correlation forNatural ponds are perceived as spatially and temporally highly variable ecosystems. This perception is in contrast to the often-applied sampling design with high spatial but low temporal replication. Based on a data set covering a period of six years and 20 permanently to periodically inundated ponds, we investigated whether this widely applied sampling design is sufficient to identify differences between single ponds or single years with regard to water quality and macrophyte community composition as measures of ecosystem integrity. In our study, the factor "pond", which describes differences between individual ponds, explained 56 % and 63 %, respectively, of the variance in water quality and macrophyte composition. In contrast, the factor "year" that refers to changes between individual years, contributed less to understand the observed variability in water quality and macrophyte composition (10 % and 7 % respectively, of the variance explained). The low explanation of variance for "year" and the low year-to-year correlation for the single water quality parameter or macrophyte coverage values, respectively, indicated high but non-consistent temporal variability affecting individual pond patterns. In general, the results largely supported the ability of the widely applied sampling strategy with about one sampling date per year to capture differences in water quality and macrophyte community composition between ponds. Hence, future research can be rest upon sampling designs that give more weight to the number of ponds than the number of years in dependence on the research question and the available resources. Nonetheless, pond research would miss a substantial amount of information (7 to 10 % of the variance explained), when the sampling would generally be restricted to one year. Moreover, we expect that the importance of multiple-year sampling will likely increase in periods and regions of higher hydrological variability compared to the average hydrological conditions encountered in the studied period.…
Author details: | Marlene PätzigORCiDGND, Thomas KalettkaGND, Gabriela OnandiaORCiD, Dagmar BallaORCiD, Gunnar LischeidORCiDGND |
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DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.limno.2019.125728 |
ISSN: | 0075-9511 |
ISSN: | 1873-5851 |
Title of parent work (English): | Limnologica : ecology and management of inland waters |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Place of publishing: | Amsterdam [u.a.] |
Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of first publication: | 2020/01/01 |
Publication year: | 2020 |
Release date: | 2023/06/01 |
Tag: | conservation; kettle holes; macrophytes; space; time; water quality |
Volume: | 80 |
Article number: | 125728 |
Number of pages: | 10 |
Organizational units: | Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Umweltwissenschaften und Geographie |
DDC classification: | 5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 50 Naturwissenschaften / 500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik |
Peer review: | Referiert |
Publishing method: | Open Access / Hybrid Open-Access |
License (German): | CC-BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International |