Aquatic Macrophytes Occurrence in Mediterranean Farm Ponds: Preliminary Investigations in North-Western Sicily (Italy)

Mediterranean wetlands are severely affected by habitat degradation and related loss of biodiversity. In this scenario, the wide number of artificial farm ponds can play a significant role in the biodiversity conservation of aquatic flora. In the present contribution we show the preliminary results...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Plants
Main Authors: Panzeca, Patrizia, Troia, Angelo, Madonia, Paolo
Other Authors: #PLACEHOLDER_PARENT_METADATA_VALUE#, Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), Sezione Roma2, Roma, Italia
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: MDPI 2021
Subjects:
Mediterranean flora
aquatic flora
bioindicators
carbon isotopes
conservation
hydrophytes
inland waters
water geochemistry
Zannichellia palustris
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/2122/15593
https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10071292
Description
Summary:Mediterranean wetlands are severely affected by habitat degradation and related loss of biodiversity. In this scenario, the wide number of artificial farm ponds can play a significant role in the biodiversity conservation of aquatic flora. In the present contribution we show the preliminary results of a study on Mediterranean farm ponds of north-western Sicily (Italy), aimed to investigating the environmental factors linked to the occurrence of submerged macrophytes (vascular plants and charophytes). We studied the aquatic flora of 30 ponds and determined the chemical and isotopic composition of their water bodies on a subset of the most representative 10 sites. Results show that (1) farm ponds host few but interesting species, such as Potamogeton pusillus considered threatened at regional level; (2) Chara vulgaris, C. globularis and P. pusillus behave as disturbance-tolerant species, occurring both in nitrates-poor and nitrates-rich waters, whereas Stuckenia pectinata and Zannichellia palustris occur only in nitrates-poor waters. Although farm ponds are artificial and relatively poor habitats, these environments seem to be important for the aquatic flora and for the conservation of the local biodiversity, and can give useful information for the use of macrophytes as bioindicators in the Mediterranean area. Published 1292 6A. Geochimica per l'ambiente e geologia medica JCR Journal

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