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- Title
Persistence and colonization strategies of playa wetland invertebrates.
- Authors
Anderson, James T.; Smith, Loren M.
- Abstract
Wetland invertebrates have evolved numerous means of inhabiting spatially and temporally flooded wetland environments. The ability of invertebrates to either colonize from other sources and/or to persist in dry wetlands through diapause has seldom been simultaneously studied. We compared strategies of colonization and persistence by invertebrates in variable environments (playa wetlands on the Southern High Plains of Texas). We also examined emergence response time, following flooding, of taxa that persist in playa soil using field experiments and microcosms. At least 26 of 87 invertebrate taxa survive seasonal drying of playas through aestivation in soil. More invertebrate taxa only colonized flooded playas (70.1%) than only persisted in dry soil (29.9%) (P < 0.05). Of the invertebrate taxa that persisted in dry soil, more (P < 0.05) of these were active colonists or relied strictly on diapause rather than a combination of aestivation and colonization. Invertebrate densities were not statistically different among taxa that practiced colonization and persistence (5.2 invertebrates/m2, SE = 2.0) or that only persisted (1.5 invertebrates/m2, SE = 0.5) in playas (P=0.918). The average amount of time for a taxon to first appear in a microcosm was about 3 weeks less in 1995–96 than 1994–95, which was likely due to greater precipitation during 1995–96. We found that both colonization and persistence was practiced more often than a single strategy for those invertebrates sampled in microcosms. Conservation efforts for playa invertebrates should be implemented at the landscape level and focus on playas with intact watersheds, because these playas have relatively undisturbed hydroperiods.
- Subjects
INVERTEBRATES; WETLANDS; AQUATIC biology; AQUATIC sciences; ANIMAL communities
- Publication
Hydrobiologia, 2004, Vol 513, Issue 1-3, p77
- ISSN
0018-8158
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1023/B:hydr.0000018171.44844.20