Abstract

Wetlands are among the most endangered ecosystems worldwide with multiple direct and indirect stressors, especially in human-altered areas like intensive agricultural landscapes. Conservation management and efforts often focus on species diversity and charismatic taxa, but scarcely consider habitats. By focusing on a complex formed by 107 permanent wetlands at 18 Natura 2000 sites in the Emilia-Romagna region (northern Italy), the patterns of habitats of conservation concern were investigated and the concordance with threatened species patterns was analysed. Wetlands were characterised in terms of morphology, connectivity, land use and management as drivers of assemblage and richness patterns of habitats. Our results showed a strong concordance between the distribution and richness patterns of both habitats and threatened taxa (birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, fish, invertebrates, and plants). Thus, habitats seem an effective proxy of species patterns. The variables related with perimeter, environmental heterogeneity and presence of water bodies were the most important ones associated with habitat richness patterns. The presence of aquatic systems (measured as the percentage of wetland area occupied by an aquatic surface) and their position in the hydrographic network were associated mostly with habitats distribution. Low richness wetlands (in habitat terms) were not complementary as no new habitat types were supported. The results stressed the relevance of wetlands with wide water body perimeters composed of diverse systems as being key for biodiversity conservation in a simplified agricultural matrix. Integrating habitat- and species-based perspectives seems a promising field and may provide a rapid assessment tool to acquire effective information for wetlands conservation and assessment.

中文翻译：

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结合基于栖息地和物种的观点对低地农业景观进行湿地保护

摘要

湿地是全球范围内最危险的生态系统，具有多种直接和间接的压力源，尤其是在人为改变的区域，如密集的农业景观。养护管理和工作往往侧重于物种多样性和魅力型生物分类群，但几乎不考虑栖息地。通过关注艾米利亚—罗马涅地区（意大利北部）的18个纳图拉2000年站点上的107个永久性湿地形成的复合体，调查了具有保护意义的生境的格局，并分析了与受威胁物种格局的一致性。湿地的特征是形态，连通性，土地利用和管理，它们是栖息地集合和丰富模式的驱动力。我们的结果表明，两种生境和受威胁的生物分类的分布和丰富度模式之间都有很强的一致性。（鸟类，哺乳动物，两栖动物，爬行动物，鱼类，无脊椎动物和植物）。因此，栖息地似乎是物种格局的有效替代。与周长，环境异质性和水体存在相关的变量是与生境丰富度模式相关的最重要变量。水生系统的存在（以水面占湿地面积的百分比来衡量）及其在水文网络中的位置主要与栖息地的分布有关。由于没有新的栖息地类型得到支持，低丰度的湿地（以栖息地计）不是互补的。结果强调，湿地具有宽阔的水体周界（由多种系统组成）的相关性，对于在简化的农业矩阵中保护生物多样性至关重要。