Managing Successional Stage Heterogeneity to Maximize Landscape-Wide Biodiversity of Aquatic Vegetation in Ditch Networks
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The presence of a high diversity of different successional stages in a landscape may help to conserve and promote landscape-wide biodiversity. A strategy to achieve this is using Cyclic Rejuvenation through Management (CRM), an approach employed in a variety of different ecosystems. CRM periodically resets the successional stages in a landscape. For aquatic systems this constitutes vegetation removal and dredging. For this approach to be useful (a) successional stages are required to be different in community composition and (b) these differences need to be caused by true replacement of species between stages. While potentially valid, these assumptions are not generally tested prior to application of CMR. In this study we test these assumptions to explore the usefulness of managing on successional stage heterogeneity for maximizing landscape-wide aquatic plant diversity. We carried out vegetation surveys in the ditch networks of 21 polder landscapes in Netherlands, each containing 24 ditch reaches. Using a clustering approach combined with insight from literature on vegetation succession in these systems we assigned our sampled communities to defined successional stages. After partitioning landscape diversity into its alpha and beta components, we quantified the relative importance of replacement among successional stages. Next, through scenario analyses based on simulations we studied the effects of reducing successional stage heterogeneity on landscape-wide biodiversity. Results showed that differences in community composition among successional stages were a potentially important factor contributing to landscape diversity. Early successional stages were characterized by higher replacement of species compared to late successional stages. In a scenario of gradual decrease of heterogeneity through the systematic loss of the earliest successional stages we found 20% of the species richness in a polder was lost, pointing toward the importance of maintaining early successional stages in a polder. This makes a compelling case for application of CRM within agricultural drainage ditch landscapes to maximize regional aquatic plant diversity. While applied to drainage ditch systems, our data-driven approach is broadly applicable to other systems and may help in providing first indications of the potential of the CRM approach. We argue that CRM may maintain and promote regional biodiversity without compromising the hydrological function of the systems.
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At a landscape scale, the unique hydrological characteristics of ditches can provide important ecological niches for many species, thereby increasing regional biodiversity.
“At a landscape scale, the unique hydrological characteristics of ditches can provide important ecological niches for many species, thereby increasing regional biodiversity 186,195,198,199 .”
From Lines in the landscape (2025) · cites this paper as [198]
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- Authors
- Teurlincx, S., Verhofstad, M. J. J. M., Bakker, E. S., & Declerck, S. A. J.
- Affiliations
- Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NL)
- Radboud University Medical Center (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Teurlincx, Sven
- Venue
- Frontiers in Plant Science
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2018-07-16
- Volume
- 9
- Pages
- 1013-1013
- ISSN
- 1664-462X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6055429
- OpenAlex
- W2811139673
- Cited by
- 22
- References
- 69
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 5
- FWCI
- 1.77
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Frontiers in Plant Science (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Lirias (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- KNAW Research Portal (The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (841.11.009)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Hydrology and Sediment Transport Processes
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Ecology and biodiversity studies
- Keywords
- aquatic plants, aquatic plant diversity, agricultural drainage ditches, species replacement, alpha and beta diversity, landscape biodiversity, vegetation succession, dredging, vegetation removal, early successional stages, scenario analysis
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