International Pond Conference 2024

The value of ponds and pondscapes for biodiversity

• The hidden biodiversity and conservation value of sediment ponds created through agri-environment schemes (AES) in the UK
• Biodiversity of ponds created during landscape-scale peatland restoration in northern England
• Floodplain pondscapes and beavers – multiscale ecosystem engineering and potential inspiration for nature conservation
• Urbanisation drives inter- and intraspecific variation in flight-related traits of aquatic insects: Implications for pondscape design
• MoRe Porto: A Freshwater BiodiverCITY Research
• What have been studied of temporary ponds of Latin America and Caribbean: a literature review
• The impact of environmental conditions in SUDS ponds on the presence of amphibians
• Influence of salinity and altitude in the functional diversity of macroinvertebrate communities in temporary ponds
• Environmental filtering and dispersal on macroinvertebrate metacommunity structure in rural ponds of Ankara, Turkiye
• Environmental filtering and dispersal effect macrophyte community composition and coverage in rural ponds of Ankara, Turkiye
• Effects of urbanisation on zooplankton communities in urban ponds in Budapest, Hungary
• Alien chelonians in Spain: trends and spatial modelling of unstoppable threat
• A multi-year monitoring programme for ponds created or restored as part of the NatureSpace great crested newt (Triturus cristatus) District Licensing scheme
• Fish modulate the local and regional determinants of food web architecture in permanent ponds
• Connectivity between urban ponds can help support larger populations of dragonflies
• Shrimp on the rocks: Fairy shrimp ecology and species diversity in California rock pools
• Land-use, climate, and habitats effects on California vernal pool communities

Threats to pond biodiversity

• European pond biodiversity in relation to climate, land use and local environmental habitat conditions
• State of pesticide contamination of the German kettle pond region
• Quantifying levels and intensities of environmental stressors across a wide range of pond types
• Garden ponds: hidden sources for plant invasion?
• Impact of temperature rise on the metacommunity structure of early-hatching zooplankton in Mediterranean temporary ponds
• Fourteen years of monitoring the macroinvertebrate assemblages of the Donana pondscape (SW Spain) with a conservation perspective
• Key drivers of biodiversity and CO2 emissions in the dry period in temporary ponds along a European latitudinal gradient
• Interactive effect of temperature and nutrients on macrophyte growth form dominance in shallow ponds
• Widespread long-term declines of littoral areas in protected and unprotected Czech fishponds
• Deterioration of the Donana pond network and the consequent loss of biodiversity
• Environmental variables influencing zooplankton communities in Andean Patagonian wetlands (Argentina)
• Climate change scenarios differently modulate the effect of a freshwater non-native species in a native macrophyte
• Temporary ponds under threat: Conservation challenges in peninsular Spain
• Climate change related warming as modulator of multiple stressors in shallow ponds

Modelling and assessment of ponds

Keynote speech from Hannah Druckenmiller, Caltech

• Land use and climate change impacts on pond biodiversity and ecosystem services across Europe
• The Great London Pond Project
• Searching for ponds from space – how can remote sensing be used as part of a toolkit for rapid pond identification?
• Passive acoustic monitoring of amphibian, fish, and macroinvertebrate communities in temperate ponds
• The Priority Pond Assessment (PASS) method: a citizen science tool for identifying and mapping priority pond habitat
• Natural England’s District Level Licensing 3350+ ponds in
• GenePools: Exploring urban pond biodiversity with eDNA techniques in a community science space

Ponds as nature’s contributions to people

• Potential of wetlands and ponds to deliver payment for ecosystem services (PES)
• Impact of fish ponds on catchment hydrology and water temperature in receiving streams
• Oasis in the desert – kettle holes as a source of essential nutrients in an intensively-utilized agricultural landscape
• Large branchiopods as key contributors to ecosystem services in temporary ponds
• An overview of ecosystem services and biodiversity in quarry and mining ponds in Sardinia: insights for their management
• Sonic pond dipping: Underwater soundscapes

Ponds and regulation of climate

Keynote speech from Meredith Holgerson, Cornell University

• How hydroperiod and restoration practises impact the carbon budget of temporary ponds
• Impact of aquatic vegetation on greenhouse gas emissions in a naturalized urban pond
• Relationship between ecosystems functions and biodiversity on natural ponds ecosystems under different anthropogenic pressures
• Can we mitigate greenhouse has emissions through pond naturalization? A study in urban Barcelona
• Carbon budget in artificial rural ponds: potential drivers of C sequestration in ponds of contrasting land use
• Potential drivers of macrophytes stoichiometry in ponds across a nutrient gradient and climate regions

Implications of pond science for policy

Keynote speech from Pete Brotherton, Natural England

• Policies for ponds: recent developments and future directions
• Measuring the impacts of freshwater restoration on the goals of the European Green Deal
• Financing ponds and pondscapes as nature-based solutions
• Restoration project for a degraded urban ecosystem in Golbasi Flats, Ankara: a precarious equilibrium
• Lakes or ponds? The Water Framework Directive and the reference conditions in Spain
• Policies and practises impacting the implementation of nature-based solutions: a comparative study of ponds and pondscapes in eight countries

Pond biodiversity benefits for the wider landscape

Keynote speech from Lenore Fahrig, Carleton University

• Challenges and opportunities of restoring pondscapes in a highly altered Mediterranean landscape
• Examples of creating ponds and pondscapes with clean water for biodiversity conservation around Europe
• The NatureSpace District Licensing Scheme: pond creation and restoration best practise for great crested newt (Triturus cristatus)
• The role of ponds as reservoirs of freshwater biodiversity at a landscape scale: results form the Water Friendly Farming project, a demonstration site in the EU-funded PONDERFUL programme
• District licensing for great crested newts – 5 years in

Maintaining and increasing pond biodiversity

• Building pondscapes for amphibian metapopulations
• More Porto Project: enhancing small waterbodies through management and restoration actions
• Drying-out as a key management practise for fish ponds, to promote primary producers and macrophyte species richness
• Field hygiene in pond construction and pond management. Amphibian habitats: insights from invasive neophyte management in large-scale projects
• Can disturbance benefit the biodiversity of Mediterranean temporary ponds? Insights and challenges from vegetation management
• The geology of ponds: implications for their management today
• Monitoring occupancy trends in great crested newts (Triturus cristatus) in England: a decade of annual volunteer surveys using eDNA and its application to the assessment of conservation approaches for this species
• The power of ponds in catchment restoration: 5 years research on wetland plant communities from the Pitsford Water Friendly Farming demonstration project
• Restoring ‘ghost ponds’ to boost freshwater wetland plant biodiversity conservation: assessments of success using plant macrofossils
• Macrophyte succession in Norfolk’s resurrected ghost pingo ponds demonstrates exciting potential for wetland conservation
• Do agri-schemes deliver for pond biodiversity?
• Potential design and management measures to enhance biodiversity in artificial rural ponds: the case of cattle water ponds in Uruguay

Maximising the value of ponds as nature-based solutions

• Ponds and pondscapes as nature-based solutions (NbS) for adaptation to climate change: evidence-based success stories across 8 demo sites
• The management of stormwater ponds and wetlands to improve water quality and quantity management in Auckland, New Zealand
• Unlocking the potential of ponds and pondscapes as nature-based solutions for climate resilience and beyond: hundred evidences
• CLIMA-Pond concept and its standardisation: developing guidelines for widespread adoption of nature-based solutions
• Exploring naturalized urban ponds in Barcelona: an interdisciplinary study
• Implementation of pond/pondscape nature-based solutions for addressing new emerging societal challenges
• Flood management ponds contribute to pondscape biodiversity: evidence from dragonflies in the Eddlesdon Water catchment (Scotland)
• A multi-criteria decision support tool for guiding the implementation of pond/pondscape Nature-Based Solutions
• The POUNDER Project – enhancing urban pond resilience through eco-evolutionary dynamics

Pond biodiversity and climate

• Greenhouse gas dynamics in ponds, insights from the PONDERFUL project
• Assessing the storage of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) in the sediment of beaver-created wetlands
• Effects of urbanisation, habitat characteristics, and management on garden pond biodiversity: a citizen science approach
• Unveiling bacterial communities in rainwater harvesting pond during summer: Insights from MinION sequencing
• Vernal pools, temporary wetland which enhance duckling success
• Understanding the factors affecting the diversity of zooplankton communities in a pond metacommunity
• Drying of open-canopy ponds threatens pollinator richness and plant-pollinator interaction network structure
• Understanding the role of network connectivity in safeguarding community functioning and diversity against salinity stress
• Relationship between pond condition and its water quality with species richness and diversity of macroinvertebrate communities in Mediterranean ponds
• Distribution patterns of caldoceran zooplankton at a European scale
• Drivers of urban freshwater invertebrate communities along a climate gradient

• Phytoplankton sampling and analyses for evaluating ecological status and the new reference conditions in Spanish shallow lakes and ponds
• Macrophyte sampling and analyses for evaluating the impact of hydro-morphological pressures on ecological status and the new reference conditions in Spanish shallow lakes and ponds
• Invertebrate sampling and analyses for evaluating ecological status and reassess reference conditions in Spanish shallow lakes and ponds
• Post-project reflections on the puddles to ponds initiative – Scottish Highlands education through restoration project
• The lost ponds of Essex – harnessing the power of citizen science
• Implementing adaptive management within the Natura 2000 network in Czechia: a case study of six amphibian species
• Digging for the yellow-bellied toad (Bombina variegata): Promoting species recovery through habitat restoration at a historical military site
• Hydroregime and ex-situ sediment conditions modulate the hatching of resting eggs of a freshwater calanoid copepod
• Ponds for forestry, a rationale. Knockshanvo Pilot Project: A ‘biodiversity blueprint’
• Natural swimming pools as nature-based solutions promoting well-being and biodiversity
• Biodiversity of zooplankton in some water bodies of the Volga River basin (European Russia)
• Macrozoobenthos of small lakes in European Northeast of Russia
• The role of natural water bodies in the city flora enrichment with hydrophillic plant species
• Rediscovery of a slender pond snail Imphiscola glabra population at a mesotrophic mire in Lowland Scotland: ecology, conservation and translocation
• Charophytes lost? Case of Deliblato Sands pondscapes
• Insect subsidies and pond habitat characteristics influence foraging activity and pond-use by aerial insectivores – a pilot study of open-canopy ponds in lowland, pastoral landscapes
• The importance of livestock ponds: Insights from vegetation data collection, East Bay Parks, California
• Agricultural intensity and disturbing local factors affect farmland pond plant diversity
• Land use intensity effects on macroinvertebrate communities in artificial rural ponds in Uruguay
• Anthropogenic stressors on pond biodiversity: Impacts of pollutants mixtures and perceived predation on Rana temporia development
• Restoration methods as a driver of the zooplankton structuring in the Adriatic coastal ponds
• Macroinvertebrates colonization patterns in created coastal ponds: taxonomic and functional approaches
• Comparative analysis of biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people in urban and rural ponds in Ankara, Turkiye
• Targeted citizen science as a mapping tool for temporary ponds: #TxioBatPutzuan campaigns with Rana temporaria spawning sites
• Human behavioural and historical taxonomy in the mapping of small water bodies
• Rotifer-based trophic assessment of small water bodies in agricultural and forested areas
• Transforming a residential koi pond into a thriving wildlife haven in Mutiara Seputeh, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• Influence of management practises on carbon fluxes in aquaculture ponds during wet period: insights from La Dombes, France
• CO2 emissions from a rewetted kettle pond in the agricultural landscape
• How garden ponds can provide magic in urban landscapes and biodiversity