Thornhill, I., Ledger, M., Batty, L., Friberg, N.  The urban pond and threats to environmental and human health.  Universitas 21 Graduate Research Conference ‘Cities for a sustainable future’, Universities of Melbourne and Queensland, Australia, November 2009

Abstract:

In recent years there has been an increased interest in small lentic (still water) water systems (Oertli et al. 2009). Reasons for this include their significant contribution to regional diversity (Williams et al. 2004, Davies et al. 2008, Ruggiero et al. 2008), including the presence of rare species (Scheffer et al. 2006), and their use as model systems (De Meester et al. 2005). Interest has also risen because pond environments are often neglected habitats (De Meester et al. 2005) or are filled in by natural or artificial processes (Williams et al. 1998).

Ponds are defined as standing water bodies up to 2ha in size holding water for at least 4 months of the year (Biggs et al. 1998). To date the majority of studies have focussed upon ponds within rural and agricultural landscapes. By contrast, ponds within urban areas are poorly understood, with only a few studies to date which begin to explore the links between their biodiversity and environment, e.g. Birch and McCaskie 1999, Stoianov et al. 2000, Wood and Barker 2000, Gledhill et al. 2008, Vermonden et al. 2009.

Two overarching questions are posed during this study, these are:

1. Which factors, by studying a range of local and spatial variables, have the greatest influence upon
environmental health (expressed as biodiversity), within urban ponds?
2. What threats are posed to human health by urban ponds?

Slides

Proceedings (A-F) (G-Z)

References

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