Department of Biological Applications and Technologies, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece.
Nature Conservation Unit, Frederick University, Nicosia, Cyprus.
PLoS One. 2018 May 10;13(5):e0197286. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0197286. eCollection 2018.
The degradation of natural wetlands has significant effects on the ecosystem services they provide and the biodiversity they sustain. Under certain conditions, these negative effects can be mitigated by the presence of artificial wetlands. However, the conservation value of artificial wetlands needs to be explored further. In addition, it is unclear how certain anthropogenic variables, such as road networks and hunting reserves (i.e., areas where hunting of birds is prohibited) affect biodiversity in both artificial and natural wetlands. Here, we use data from thirteen artificial and six natural wetlands in Cyprus, to assess their similarities in bird species diversity and composition, and to quantify the relationship between species diversity and the density of road networks, hunting reserves, wetland size, and wetland depth. We found that while on average natural wetlands have more species and support higher abundances, certain artificial wetlands have the potential to support similarly diverse communities. Overall, regardless of the type, larger wetlands, with shallower waters tend to be more biodiverse. The same is true for wetlands surrounded by a higher percentage of hunting reserves and a lower density of road networks, albeit the effect of road networks was weaker. We conclude, from our results, that although the conservation value of natural wetlands is higher, artificial wetlands have the potential to play a complimentary role in the conservation of bird communities, assuming those wetlands have the right characteristics (e.g., in terms of size and depth) and assuming that the disturbances resulting from high-impact human-activities (e.g., hunting) are minimized.
自然湿地的退化对它们所提供的生态系统服务和维持的生物多样性有重大影响。在某些条件下，人工湿地的存在可以减轻这些负面影响。然而，人工湿地的保护价值需要进一步探讨。此外，某些人为变量（如道路网络和狩猎保护区（即禁止鸟类狩猎的区域））如何影响人工和自然湿地中的生物多样性尚不清楚。在这里，我们使用来自塞浦路斯的十三个人工湿地和六个自然湿地的数据，评估它们在鸟类物种多样性和组成方面的相似性，并量化物种多样性与道路网络密度、狩猎保护区密度、湿地大小和湿地深度之间的关系。我们发现，虽然自然湿地的平均物种数量更多，支持的生物量更高，但某些人工湿地也有可能支持同样多样化的群落。总的来说，无论湿地类型如何，面积较大、水深较浅的湿地往往具有更高的生物多样性。受狩猎保护区比例较高和道路网络密度较低影响的湿地也是如此，尽管道路网络的影响较弱。我们从研究结果中得出结论，尽管自然湿地的保护价值更高，但人工湿地有可能在保护鸟类群落方面发挥补充作用，前提是这些湿地具有正确的特征（例如，在大小和深度方面），并且可以最大限度地减少高强度人类活动（如狩猎）造成的干扰。
