David Moreno-Mateos

Integrating objectives and scales for planning and implementing wetland restoration and creation in agricultural landscapes

Traditionally, wetland management strategies have focused on single familiar objectives, such as improving water quality, strengthening biodiversity, and providing flood control. Despite the relevant amount of studies focused on wetland creation or restoration with these and other objectives, still little is known on how to integrate objectives of wetland creation or restoration at different landscape scales. We have reviewed the literature to this aim, and based on the existing current knowledge, we propose a four step approach to take decisions in wetland creation or restoration planning. First, based on local needs and limitations we should elucidate what the wetland is needed for. Second, the scale at which wetland should be created or restored must be defined. Third, conflicts and compatibilities between creation or restoration objectives must then be carefully studied. Fourth, a creation or restoration strategy must be defined. The strategy can be either creating different unipurpose wetlands or multipurpose wetlands, or combinations of them at different landscape scales. In any case, in unipurpose wetland projects we recommend to pursue additional secondary objectives. Following these guidelines, restored and created wetlands would have more ecological functions, similar to natural wetlands, especially if spatial distribution in the landscape is considered. Restored and created wetlands could then provide an array of integrated environmental services adapted to local ecological and social needs.

Will your paper be used in a meta‐analysis? Make the reach of your research broader and longer lasting

Summary Ecological and evolutionary research increasingly uses quantitative synthesis of primary research studies (meta-analysis) for answering fundamental questions, informing environmental policy and summarizing results for decision makers. Knowing how meta-analysis works is important for researchers so that their research can have broader impact. Meta-analytic thinking encourages scientists to see single primary research studies as substantial contributions to a larger picture. To facilitate inclusion in a meta-analysis, relevant primary research studies must be found and basic information about the methods and results must be thoroughly, clearly and transparently reported. While many published papers provide this information, it is common for essential data to be omitted, leading to study exclusion from meta-analyses. We provide guidelines for correctly reporting basic data needed from primary studies in ecology and evolutionary biology so that they can be included in meta-analyses, together with examples that show how data should be reported to enable calculation and analysis of effect sizes, and how data should be made accessible. These guidelines are important for reporting research results in general, whether or not results are included in subsequent meta-analyses, because they are necessary for the interpretation and assessment of study outcomes. Increased implementation of these guidelines by authors, editors and publishers, and reinforcement by funders, will foster higher quality and more inclusive syntheses, further the goals of transparency and reproducibility in science, and improve the quality and value of primary research studies.

Effects of Land use on Nocturnal Birds in a Mediterranean Agricultural Landscape

Abstract. Knowledge on the effects of land use on community composition and species abundance is crucial for designing realistic conservation strategies, particularly in highly dynamic systems such as Mediterranean agricultural mosaics that are subjected to intensive cultivation. We investigated these effects on the nocturnal bird species occurring in the study area (Stone Curlew Burhinus oedicnemus, Red-necked Nightjar Caprimulgus ruflcollis, Barn Owl Tyto alba, Eurasian Scops Owl Otus scops, Little Owl Athene noctua, Tawny Owl Strix aluco, Long-eared Owl Asio otus, Short-eared Owl Asio flammeus and Eagle Owl Bubo bubo) across an agricultural-natural habitat mosaic in Central Spain for three consecutive years. Shares of vineyards, scrubland, herbaceous cropland, water bodies, and roads significantly affected the composition of the nocturnal bird community. Herbaceous cropland and olive groves, which covered 50% of the study area, proved to be neutral for all species. Remnant patches of natural and semi-natural scrubland (around 10% of the study area) and water bodies (only 1.5% of the study area) showed a positive effect on Eagle Owls, Eurasian Scops Owls, Long-eared Owls, and Red-necked Nightjars. Vineyard (35% of the study area) had a negative influence on Eagle Owls, Long-eared Owls, and Eurasian Scops Owls. Our results indicate, first, that the relative extent of land use types was apparently not related with the presence of nocturnal bird species and, second, that natural scrublands and water bodies are key habitats for assuring the persistence of nocturnal birds in agricultural Mediterranean landscapes. Current land planning focused toward land use intensification will likely increase the areas of habitats that are neutral or have adverse effects on nocturnal birds.

Wetland Restoration: Integrating Scientific-Technical, Economic, and Social Perspectives

ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION 23:3 ■ SEPTEMBER 2005 Ecological Restoration, Vol. 23, No. 3, 2005 ISSN 1522-4740 E-ISSN 1543-4079 ©2005 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. Wetlands are being restored around the world using a wide spectrum of different approaches from the application of well-grounded scientific knowledge to obtain a precise objective to trial-and-error practices just to have water for some time on a piece of land. Whatever the methodology, wetland restoration projects can provide good theoretical and practical knowledge because, compared to other ecosystems, wetland ecosystems react relatively soon to manipulations (Mitsch and Gosselink 2000, Zentner and others 2003). Given this range of approaches, it must also be noted that the success of an ecological restoration project depends on many factors that should be taken into account when planning and developing a project. These can be grouped into three types: 1) technical failures or lack of scientific information, 2) economic constraints, and 3) social disagreements. The integration of these three perspectives— scientific-technical, economic and social —is important to obtain all the values of an ecological restoration project (Comín 2002, Winterhalder and others 2004). In this article, we present a number of wetland restoration experiences developed under different conditions in northeastern Spain in order to look for common recommendations for planning future, highvalue projects.

The road to confusion is paved with novel ecosystem labels: a reply to Hobbs et al.

Responding to our critique of the novel ecosystem concept [1], Hobbs et al. [2] misrepresent our points of view, so we begin by clarifying our position. First, we do not deny the existence of anthropogenically transformed ecosystems; cities, pastures, agricultural fields, or open-pit mines are real and have accompanied humans for millennia. We agree: society must deal with these ecosystems in sensible and effective ways, as part of the much larger effort to transition toward sustainability, maintain biodiversity, and provide ecosystem services to humans and habitat to other species.

Effect of Wetlands on Water Quality of an Agricultural Catchment in a Semi-Arid Area Under Land Use Transformation

The reduction of nutrients and sediments from agriculturalrunoff by natural wetlands has been commonly accepted, buttheirrole in water quality improvement at the catchmentscale has been seldom studied, especially in irrigated catchments. This study aims to elucidate the effect of natural and recently created wetlands on stream water quality after the conversion of a catchment for irrigation purposes.Water quality andmorphometrical andvegetation-related variables weremeasured in 19 wetlands on a 750-ha agricultural catchment under semi-arid conditions in the Ebro basin(NE Spain). A pollution gradient was found, increasing from the wetlands located in the upper catchment to those in the lower catchment.Wetlands with the lowest degree of artificiality, measured asthe amount of human createdstructures(e.g., channel excavation, dikes), and higher plant richness hadthepoorest water quality, probablybecause they were in the lower catchment and their water contained more pollutants carried from agricultural and salinesoils upstream. Some of these wetlands also had the highest rates of sediment and N-NO3 retention, incontrast to more artificial wetlands, which exported nutrients and sediments. Less artificial wetlands could also provide ancillary benefits such as biodiversity enhancement or landscape heterogeneity improvement.

Invertebrates in Created and Restored Wetlands

Wetland creation and restoration has increased drastically during the last four decades owing to a combination of reasons, including mitigation banking, pollutant retention, biodiversity conservation, and recreation. These ecosystems are often intensely managed and invertebrate controls are highly specific to each wetland type. They offer unique opportunities to test ecological theory, particularly succession and community assembly. On the applied side, research in these systems has focused on the use of invertebrates as indicators of ecological conditions, and on the potential and limits of multifunctionality (e.g., nutrient retention and biodiversity conservation). The development or recovery of wetland structure and functioning is highly context-dependent and currently limited, and invertebrate successional trajectories are difficult to anticipate. Nevertheless, created and restored wetlands may positively contribute to sustaining invertebrate metapopulations and metacommunities by increasing the density of waterbodies available at the landscape scale.

Nitrate and salt water contamination associated with the transition of an agrarian basin into an irrigated area.

The introduction of irrigation to agrarian areas involves several environmental changes that can be aggravated by physical and agronomic factors. The aim of this study is to analyze the spatiotemporal dynamics of the environmental impact on water resources that result from the transition of an agrarian basin into an irrigated area. During five hydrological years, a spatiotemporal comparison was carried out on the quantity and quality of drainage from the four zones in which the study area was subdivided. Introduction of irrigation activities incorporated flows that lowered salinity and increased nitrate concentration in the basin. The zones/years with most irrigation showed the greatest exports of salts and nitrates, with temporal variations related to rainfall patterns and spatial variations related to soil salinity and nitrogenous fertilization. The agro-environmental impacts of the gradual introduction of irrigation into a previously non-irrigated area were congruent to that of established irrigation areas with similar characteristics.