Imagine the biodiversity of temporary wetlands in European boreal forests, a science-art pedagogical kit made by the team of the POOL project

Intermittently flooded areas, called temporary wetlands, are usually small, shallow aquatic features. Their main characteristic is that they dry out seasonally or sometimes for several years, often every year and sometimes unpredictably. They are therefore particularly sensitive to global change , e...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Davranche, Aurélie, Tuháčková-Vogel, Radka, Vogel, Xenia, Vogel, Víla, Bänsch, Aubin, Chapot, Pierre-Lou, Arzel, Céline
Format: Lecture
Language:English
Published: Zenodo 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11486687
Description
Summary:Intermittently flooded areas, called temporary wetlands, are usually small, shallow aquatic features. Their main characteristic is that they dry out seasonally or sometimes for several years, often every year and sometimes unpredictably. They are therefore particularly sensitive to global change , especially in the boreal areas. They are known to host specific flora and fauna adapted to the seasonality of the water (Keddy, 2010; Laitinen, 2008) with herbaceous and woody vegetation, sometimes temporary and often dense. They are typically devoid of fish , allowing the development of amphibians, invertebrates and flora that are sensitive to fish predation (Dixneuf et al., 2021) and fish destruction (Crivelli, 1983) . For instance, studies carried out in Finland showed the prevalence of the common newt, Lissotriton vulgaris , the endangered great crested newt and the red-listed mayfly Paraleptophlebia werneri in these habitat types (Salmela and Savolainen, 2013; Vehkaoja and Nummi, 2015; Vuorio, 2016) . Seasonal wetlands are also widely used by terrestrial vertebrates as refuge, foraging sites and water point at different stages of their life cycle (Keddy, 2010) . For example, they are used as foraging sites by ducks , especially Teal Anas crecca (Nummi et al., 2019) , during the pairing season (Holopainen et al., 2014) . Hence, seasonal wetlands are hotspots of biodiversity (Keddy, 2010) . However, the lack of rigor and coherence in the regulatory protection of small aquatic resources remain a global phenomenon. The EU Water Framework Directive is generally not implemented to water bodies and wetlands of less than 50 ha. Hence, temporary wetlands have been largely overlooked despite their particular characteristics. For instance, in Finland, low-productive seasonal wetlands, “Suoarot" in Finnish (code S08 in (Kontula and Raunio, 2018) ) and seasonal ponds “Kausikuivat lammet” (code V2.09 in (Kontula and Raunio, 2018) ) are classified under the abbreviation DD_data deficiency. They are considered distinctive habitat ...