Water management infrastructure alters plant species composition, functional diversity and soil condition in a livestock‐impaired mosaic of wetlands

AQUINO, DIEGO SEBASTIAN; GAVIER?PIZARRO, GREGORIO IGNACIO; QUINTANA, RUBÉN DARÍO

APPLIED VEGETATION SCIENCE

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Año: 2022 vol. 25

1402-2001

Aims: Wetlands are key ecosystems due to their economic, social and environmentalcontributions. Because of their highly productive habitats and their dependence onhydro-meteorologic regimes, they are threatened worldwide by land use and climate change. In most wetlands, intensification of productive activities has been mostly ac-companied by the implementation of a water management infrastructure, disrupting water and nutrient dynamics. Our aim was to analyze whether intensification of live-stock raising erodes the structure and function of plant communities, as well as the quality and fertility of soils in wetlands.Location: Non-insular portion of the Lower Delta of the Paraná River, Argentina. Methods: Plant communities were characterized on the basis of their floristic compo-sition, structural and functional diversity. Soil samples were also collected to assess soil fertility, texture and quality. Generalized mixed linear models were used to contrastthese attributes across livestock management practices characterized by differingwater management infrastructure (polders and channelizations) and livestock type (bovine, bubaline).Results: Remarkably fertile hydromorphic soils supported a structurally rich and func-tionally diverse species composition. Nevertheless, most dominant populations were terrestrial, perennial, invasive species, partially adapted to conditions of temporaryflooding. Polderized livestock fields exhibited not only the lowest quality, least fertile,most compacted soils, but also lower species richness and diversity, as well as thelowest values in all non-redundant components of functional diversity. Channelizedlivestock fields exhibited lower species richness and taxonomic diversity as well as reduced soil quality and fertility, yet an overall increase in most non-redundant com-ponents of functional diversity.Conclusions: Promoting the loss of native flora, water management infrastructure im-pairs the sustainability of anthropic activities and thwarts biodiversity conservation efforts. Traditional and sustainable practices that embrace the periodicity of the flood pulse are required to preserve the taxonomic and functional diversity of plant com-munities, as well as the quality and fertility of soils.