Adult Odonata conservatism as an indicator of freshwater wetland condition

• Published in: Ecological indicators Vol. 38; pp. 31 - 39
• Main Authors: Kutcher, Thomas E., Bried, Jason T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Ltd 01.03.2014; Elsevier
• Subjects: Animal and plant ecology; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; Biological and medical sciences; Biological indicator; Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife; Damselfly; Dragonfly; Fresh water ecosystems; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects; Insecta; Invertebrates; Odonata; Parks, reserves, wildlife conservation. Endangered species: population survey and restocking; Rapid assessment; Rhode Island; Synecology; Wetland assessment; Rhode Island; United States; North America; America; Rhode Island; Biological indicator; Dragonfly; Damselfly; Rapid assessment; Wetland assessment; Insecta; Fresh water; Ecological indicator; Freshwater environment; Arthropoda; Odonata; Invertebrata; Environmental monitoring; Wetland; Environmental protection
• ISSN: 1470-160X; 1872-7034
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2013.10.028

•Coefficients of conservatism can be empirically estimated for adult Odonata.•Adult Odonata conservatism can be used to evaluate freshwater wetland condition.•Adult Odonata respond predictably to both in-wetland and buffer disturbances.•Odonata conservatism did not vary with sampling effort, unit size, or wetland class. There is a growing need to identify effective and efficient biological indicators for wetland assessment, and adult damselflies and dragonflies (Insecta: Odonata) possess several attributes that make them attractive for this application. We introduce a general indicator of freshwater wetland condition based on objectively estimated adult Odonata species conservatism, or sensitivity to human disturbances. We used an extensive opportunistic survey dataset from Rhode Island (USA) to empirically assign a coefficient of conservatism (CoC) to each of 135 Odonata species, based on their exclusivity to categories of degradation among 510 wetlands; the mean CoC of species observed in the adult stage was applied as an index of wetland integrity. An independent sample of 51 wetlands was also drawn from the opportunistic survey to test the performance of the index relative to human disturbance, as measured by multimetric rapid assessment and surrounding impervious surface area. The index was well predicted by both disturbance measures and showed no evidence of dependence on sampling effort, wetland size, or geomorphic class. Our findings suggest that conservatism of adult Odonata averaged across species may provide a robust indicator of freshwater wetland condition. And because adult Odonata are generally easy to identify, especially relative to larval Odonata, the index could be particularly useful for wetland assessment. Our straightforward empirical approach to CoC estimation could be applied to other existing spatially referenced Odonata datasets or to other species assemblages.