Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Influence of Agriculture on Aquatic Invertebrate Communities of Temporary
Wetlands in the Prairie Pothole Region of North Dakota, USA
Ned H. Euliss, Jr. and David M. Mushet
U.S. Geological Survey
Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Jamestown, North Dakota, USA 58401
Abstract: We evaluated the influence of intensive agriculture
on invertebrate communities of temporary wetlands as indicated by aquatic invertebrate
resting eggs, shells, and cases remaining after wetlands dried. To facilitate
the comparison, we sampled 19 wetlands within cropland areas and 19 wetlands
within grassland areas. We found resting eggs, shells, and cases of significantly
more taxa and greater numbers of cladoceran resting eggs (ephippia), planorbid
and physid snail shells, and ostracod shells in wetlands within grasslands than
in croplands. We also successfully incubated greater numbers of cladocerans
and ostracods from soil samples collected from grassland sites. We were unable
to detect differences in the viability of cladoceran ephippia between grassland
and cropland wetlands, but our sample size was small due to an absence of ephippia
in most cropland wetlands sampled; 74% of the cropland wetlands were devoid
of cladoceran ephippia whereas ephippia were well represented in nearly all
of our grassland sites. Our results corroborate findings of other investigators
that prairie pothole wetlands have been negatively impacted by human activities.
Our study demonstrates that aquatic invertebrates of temporary wetlands have
been negatively impacted by intensive agriculture and suggests that future studies
need to assess the influence of agricultural practices on wetland-dependant
wildlife.
Key Words: agricultural impacts, aquatic invertebrates, Branchiopoda,
cases, Cladocera, ephippia, Gastropoda, North Dakota, Ostracoda, prairie pothole
region, resting eggs, shells, temporary wetlands, Trichoptera
This resource is based on the following source (Northern Prairie Publication
1061):
Euliss, Ned H., Jr. and David M. Mushet. 1999. Influence of Agriculture on
Aquatic Invertebrate Communities of Temporary Wetlands in the Prairie
Pothole Region of North Dakota, USA. Wetlands 19(2): 578-583.
This resource should be cited as:
Euliss, Ned H., Jr. and David M. Mushet. 1999. Influence of Agriculture on
Aquatic Invertebrate Communities of Temporary Wetlands in the Prairie
Pothole Region of North Dakota, USA. Wetlands 19(2): 578-583.
Jamestown, ND: Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center Online.
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/wetlands/tempwet/index.htm
(Version 05JAN2000).
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