Department of Biology, University of Toronto Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Road, Mississauga, ON L5L 1C6, Canada; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Willcocks St., Toronto, ON M5S 3B2, Canada.
Department of Biology, University of Toronto Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Road, Mississauga, ON L5L 1C6, Canada; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Willcocks St., Toronto, ON M5S 3B2, Canada.
Sci Total Environ. 2024 Sep 10;942:173467. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173467. Epub 2024 May 25.
Stormwater ponds are increasingly becoming a dominant pond type in cities experiencing urban sprawl. These human-made ponds are designed primarily to control flooding issues associated with increased impervious surface in cities and serve to retain sediment and contaminants before flowing to urban downstream waterways. Along with these important functions, constructed ponds including stormwater ponds may be critical in urban freshwater conservation because they often represent some of the few remaining lentic environments (still water; e.g. ponds, wetlands, lakes) in many cities. We currently lack a clear understanding of the role that stormwater ponds play in serving as habitat for freshwater biodiversity. Here, we examined whether stormwater ponds support freshwater biodiversity in cities by reviewing the empirical literature on biotic community responses in urban stormwater ponds across a range of taxonomic groups. We conducted a meta-analysis on empirical papers that quantitatively examined differences in taxonomic richness between stormwater ponds and reference ponds (n = 11 papers, 22 effects). We also examined a broader set of 58 papers to qualitatively synthesize studies on stormwater pond communities and assess various indicators of habitat quality in stormwater ponds. In the studies examined, heterogeneity exists in the habitat quality of stormwater ponds and increased pollutant loads are often reported. However, the results highlight that stormwater ponds tend to contain alpha diversity comparable to reference ponds, and that overall, a range of ecologically important wildlife make use of and inhabit urban stormwater ponds. We find that stormwater ponds can often support communities with broad compositions of taxa, including those that are sensitive or vulnerable to environmental change. We compile recommendations provided within the studies in order to improve our understanding of the management of urban stormwater ponds for biodiversity conservation.
雨水池塘在经历城市扩张的城市中越来越成为主要的池塘类型。这些人工池塘主要设计用于控制城市不透水面增加带来的洪水问题，并在流入城市下游水道之前保留沉积物和污染物。除了这些重要的功能外，包括雨水池塘在内的人工池塘在城市淡水保护中可能至关重要，因为它们通常代表许多城市中为数不多的剩余静水环境（例如池塘、湿地、湖泊）。我们目前对雨水池塘在为城市淡水生物多样性提供栖息地方面所起的作用还缺乏清晰的认识。在这里，我们通过审查城市雨水池塘中生物群落对一系列分类群的反应的实证文献，研究了雨水池塘是否在城市中为淡水生物多样性提供支持。我们对定量检查雨水池塘和参考池塘之间分类丰富度差异的实证论文进行了荟萃分析（n=11 篇论文，22 个效应）。我们还审查了更广泛的 58 篇论文，以定性综合研究雨水池塘群落，并评估雨水池塘中各种栖息地质量指标。在所检查的研究中，雨水池塘的栖息地质量存在异质性，并且经常报告污染物负荷增加。然而，结果突出表明，雨水池塘往往具有与参考池塘相当的 alpha 多样性，并且总体而言，广泛的具有生态重要性的野生动物利用和栖息在城市雨水池塘中。我们发现，雨水池塘通常可以支持具有广泛分类组成的群落，包括那些对环境变化敏感或脆弱的群落。我们汇总了研究中提供的建议，以增进我们对城市雨水池塘管理以进行生物多样性保护的理解。
