Patterns, processes and community conservationthe case of aquatic birds in artificial wetlands

Abstract

The study of communities in ecology has acquired increasing importance in recent years because it allows more general and precise evaluations of species’ organization patterns and their related processes. Here, we review the main historical milestones in community ecology and some of the theoretical principles that explain community composition. We include an example of an analysis of the distribution patterns and their causes in a waterbird community using artificial irrigation ponds in south-eastern Spain. It was found that the composition of the waterbird community depended on the natural history of the species, but also on the biogeographic processes (pond size and degree of isolation), quality of the available habitat (differences in the construction design and vegetation) and positive biological interactions between the species. We also noted that the community was organized in a nested pattern and that the causes of this patterning changed between seasons (breeding vs. wintering). We use this information to provide recommendations for managing the waterbird community present in these irrigation ponds. As the ponds are embedded in a network of natural and artificial wetlands of international importance, we use a cost-efficiency approach to make suggestions for managing the conservation of the waterbirds in this network of wetlands. This study shows how theoretical community ecology can be used to study animal and plant communities and how this information can be linked to conservation biology