The environmental and zooplankton community changes in restored ponds over 4 years

Abstract

Restored ponds are uniquely suitable for the study of successional processes on aquatic communities. In a set of dune slacks of different restoration ages, we monitored monthly the environmental and community shifts of one newly restored pond over 4 years and compared it with older ponds. Questions were (i) how does the community change with time in the newly restored pond? (ii) Are these changes associated with the local environment? (iii) Was the pattern comparable to older ponds? Restoration exerted a strong effect in the pond, since the main changes were observed at the early stages of succession. Later on, the pond started to resemble older ponds in the area as it moved toward a more complex community.