Restored agricultural wetlands provide numerous ecosystem services and increase local biodiversity. Aquatic invertebrate communities are a diverse group of wetland biota and understanding the factors that affect their abundance and diversity may aid wetland restoration efforts and inform invertebrate-based wetland assessment tools.
We investigated the effects of landscape level factors such as land use and proximity to other open water habitats on water chemistry and aquatic invertebrate communities in 62 ponds on 41 conservation easements in central Wisconsin. Sample sites were limited to ponds that were permanent, restored via simple excavations (i.e. scrapes), isolated from other surface waters, and lacking populations of large benthivore fishes. Invertebrates were sampled from ponds in spring and again in late summer using activity traps and sweep nets. Additionally, macrophyte and fish communities were broadly assessed, as they may affect aquatic invertebrate communities.
Initial results suggest that annual variation in rainfall overwhelms the effects of landscape factors and water chemistry on aquatic invertebrates. However, diversity appears to decrease with increasing proportions of nearby developed land and with increasing isolation from other waterbodies. Linkages between land use and water chemistry are weak in hydrologically isolated ponds, suggesting a nuanced approach may be needed when selecting sites and interpreting data. Additional analyses will provide insights into sampling methodologies and effort and may inform sample site selection.