News
New clean water ponds created at the Water Friendly Farming demonstration site are playing a vital role in bringing back invertebrates, including an uncommon species.
Water Friendly Farming partner Freshwater Habitats Trust carried out invertebrate surveys at four waterbody types in the Stonton Brook catchment. New clean water ponds created for the Water Friendly Farming project were surveyed, along with ponds that pre-date the project, bunded ditch and stream ponds, and flood interception ponds.
The new clean-water ponds were found to be the richest in biodiversity, with 95 species identified, compared with 68 species in pre-existing ponds, 67 in flood interception ponds, and 59 in bunded ditch and stream ponds.
Ponds created for the Water Friendly Farming project were also the only waterbodies surveyed that included an uncommon species: the Variable Damselfly (Coenagrion pulchellum) which is classed as Near Threatened.
The surveys included species of dragonfly, mayfly, caddisflies, water beetles, water bugs, shrimps and slaters, snails, and flatworms and leeches.
The new ponds were added in places where they would not be polluted, such as woodland or low-input grassland. Crucially, they were not located in arable fields that are drained and did not have inflows such as streams or pipes.
Freshwater Habitats Trust has been monitoring the site annually for aquatic and wetland plants since 2010. These surveys have shown that creating and managing clean water ponds on the demonstration site increased wetland plant species by 19% and more than doubled the number of regionally rare plant species.
Penny Williams, Technical Director at Freshwater Habitats Trust said: “One of the key things we’re looking at in Water Friendly Farming is freshwater biodiversity and the project is quite unusual because we’re not just focusing on streams and rivers. Previous Water Friendly Farming research has shown the importance of clean water ponds to plant biodiversity in agricultural areas.
“These invertebrate surveys – once again – highlight the vital role of new, high-quality ponds for bringing wildlife back to the countryside.”
The biodiversity work in Water Friendly Farming features in our latest video.
