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– Distribution of turloughs in Ireland in relation to limestone bedrock, based on the GSI database (see Appendix 1) (courtesy of the Geological Survey of Ireland – GSI).
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Turloughs are karst wetland ecosystems that are virtually unique to Ireland. Flooding annually in autumn through springs and fissures in the underlying limestone and draining in the springtime, often through the same fissures or swallow-holes, they have been described as ‘temporal ecotones’. Over 300 have been documented. They are priority habitats...
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... with those from Reynolds (1985a) and some noted by the authors, are in a database in the Environmental Change Institute, NUI, Galway. Another database of >300 (based on these, GSI and other records) is held by the Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI), Dublin. This is a baseline list and not all have been formally verified. These are plotted in Fig. 1 in relation to limestone bedrock which shows how turloughs occur either on, or immediately adjacent to, areas of pure bedded limestone (see Coxon, 1987a). The greatest density of turloughs is in the western third of Ireland. Here rainfall more frequently exceeds evapotranspiration and the degree of exposure of the limestone (due to ...
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Citations
... Anas sp.) (Kantrud and Stewart 1977), and certain waders, e.g. the green sandpiper (Tringa ochropus), use flooded areas for brood rearing (Nummi et al. 2021a). Turloughs are important sites for overwintering bird populations (Sheehy Skeffington et al. 2006). Hence, many species use temporary wetlands during some phase of their life cycle and then move elsewhere or enter a dormant state when these wetlands dry out (Colburn et al. 2004). ...
Temporary wetlands have mostly been disregarded in freshwater habitat regulation (with noticeable exceptions such as turloughs) leading to their global degradation despite their high value in terms of diverse ecosystem services. Wetland creation may be used to mitigate this habitat loss. In this review, we compiled information on the ecological features of temporary wetlands based on 45 scientific publications. We identified seven types of natural temporary wetlands to be emulated in wetland construction and their restoration in the Northern Hemisphere, with hydroperiod lengths ranging from less than one month in ephemeral ponds to multi-year floods. We highlight the biodiversity associated with various hydroperiods, and show that different organisms use different temporary wetland types. We give examples of how temporary wetland creation has been used for biodiversity enhancement and list characteristics of created temporary wetlands. Colonization of the newly created temporary wetlands by aquatic macroinvertebrates and amphibians was rapid, but species compositions differed from reference sites. Finally, we provide management recommendations for creating temporary wetlands to support high biodiversity. We highlight the importance of hydroperiod management, creating banks with gradual slopes, enhancing macrophyte vegetation and fish absence to promote biodiversity in created temporary wetlands. Monitoring and ongoing management practices are discussed as tools for ensuring management targets in the long term. For example, performing partial or full drawdowns at temporary wetlands with long multi-year hydroperiods are discussed. On the landscape level, we recommend planning a network of well-connected heterogeneous wetlands with different hydroperiods to enhance colonization and dispersal, and thereby biodiversity.
... Most of these turloughs in this study had moderate or good structure with higher cover of sedges, and higher number and cover of positive indicator species. The importance of the hydrological regime in determining the ecological functioning and biodiversity of turloughs in the region is supported by previous studies in which the continuous alteration between flooding and draining events is reported to be one of the main driving forces behind turlough ecology (Sheehy Skeffington et al., 2006;Tynan et al., 2007). Nutrient status was another factor in determining turlough habitat quality in this study. ...
Low-intensity agricultural activities have found to greatly promote biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. High nature value (HNV) agricultural landscapes are generally characterised by low-intensity agricultural systems and high cover of semi-natural habitats, providing valuable areas for biodiversity conservation. Considering the importance of HNV landscapes in terms of biodiversity conservation, it is important to develop adequate tools for assessing and mapping biodiversity at landscape level.
In this study, we developed a mixed methodological framework to assess and map biodiversity in the Burren HNV agricultural landscape using habitat quality as a proxy. This methodology involved the use of data collected in the field using Rapid Assessment Cards and data obtained from an expert knowledge-based model.
Overall, the main habitat categories in the region in terms of their cover and their influence on habitat quality were improved grassland and calcareous grassland and limestone heath mosaic group. Improved grassland had the highest cover in the study area but low habitat quality score (score = 2.4), representing areas of concern for biodiversity. Calcareous grassland and limestone heath mosaic group had the second highest cover and the highest habitat quality (score = 8.0), representing valuable biodiversity hotspots. Adequate management strategies should therefore mainly target these two habitat categories to efficiently conserve and promote biodiversity in the Burren case study region.
This study demonstrates that the methodological framework applied may represent an effective tool to assess and map biodiversity at landscape level, enabling the mapping of the distribution and extent of biodiversity hotspots and areas of conservation concern more widely. It may also provide key spatially-explicit information for optimal targeting of land-use management for biodiversity.
... Turloughs contain a range of wetland species of national and international importance (Sheehy Skeffington et al., 2006;Waldren, 2015) , and are classified as a Priority Habitat in Annex 1 of the EU Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) and as Groundwater Dependent Terrestrial Ecosystems (GWDTEs) under the Water Framework Directive (WFD, Directive 2000/60/EC). The distribution and composition of vegetation communities within individual wetlands is driven by the flood regime (e.g. ...
Characterizing ephemeral karstic wetlands through hydrological modelling is key for sustainable protection of their ecosystems and to understand and mitigate the impact of flooding events. UISCEmod is a new open-source software for modelling water level time series, focused on ephemeral karstic wetlands, that requires minimal input information. UISCEmod contains both experimental and lumped hydrological models, and the calibration process is automated following a Bayesian approach. The main outputs of UISCEmod include volume, stage, inflow and outflow model time series, calibrated model parameters, and the associated uncertainties. UISCEmod was evaluated at 16 representative sites in Ireland obtaining Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) and Kling-Gupta Efficiency (KGE) above 0.85 for both stage and volume time series for most of the sites, showing its potential for covering the need for a simple, pragmatic, and flexible framework for modelling water levels in ephemeral karstic wetlands with relatively limited input data requirements.
... environment measures of the Rural Development Plan, as part of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (RDP, 2021), or similar measures, are more suitable for these species as the area of the lake is maintained by the farmers in the dry season, practising subsidized agriculture, mainly mowing.4.4 | Global implications of the studyTurloughs in Ireland are similar ecosystems to karst poljes, although poljes are typically much larger and have snowmelt water added to their hydrological regime. The main threats for biodiversity on turloughs are overgrazing and drainage(Sheehy Skeffington et al., 2006;Waldren, 2015). On karst poljes, which are mainly oligotrophic and less useful for grazing, this is rarely a problem. ...
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6. Measures dealing with land-use change and connectivity between habitats, for instance agri-environmental measures, are more appropriate for rare bird species with wider niche breadths (but still narrower than generalists), e.g. skylark (Alauda arvensis) and linnet (Linaria cannabina).
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... The wetlands are naturally diverse ecosystems that provide crucial habitat to a wide range of floral and faunal elements and ecologically susceptible systems in the world (Hebb, Mortsch, Deadman, & Cabrera, 2013;Skeffington et al., 2006;Wetser, Liu, Buisman, & Strik, 2015). The widely used definition of the wetland is the "areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six meters (Ramsar Convention Secretariat, 2013). ...
Valley-bottom wetlands are valuable assets as they deliver many ecosystem services to humankind. This study
determines the plant communities and distribution in the Gangtey-Phobji Valley bottom wetland of Wangdue Phodrang, Bhutan.
Used 100 m line transect with random sampling (1x1 m2
, 4x4 m2
, 10x10 m2
) quadrats were used for herbs, shrubs, and trees
respectively to record floristic composition. In addition, the hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and indicator species analysis
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A BSTRACT. Understanding wetland vegetation and plant species composition are crucial for wetland ecosystem restoration and sustainable biodiversity conservation. The oristic composition was collected with 170 strati ed quadrat sampling of 1 × 1 m 2 , 4 × 4 m 2 and 10 × 10 m 2 for herbs, shrubs and trees. The results showed that a total of 241 species belonging to 173 genera and 75 families were found. Of these, t h e y are 2 2 0 angiosperms, 3 gymnosperms, 5 bryophytes and 13 monilophytes. The most abundant life forms were herbaceous with 87%, shrub with 9% and 2% of trees and climbers in the wetland. The three different schematic pro le diagram represents general vegetation structure and unique habitats of Gangtey-Phobji wetland, one of the largest high-altitude wetland. The conservation agencies can use the study ndings for appropriate conservation of wetlands in the Himalayan, Bhutan.
... Studies on turlough geomorphology and conservation importance have also been conducted, e.g. Coxon (1987) andSheehy Skeffington et al. (2006), and summaries of turlough wetland plant and freshwater habitats and communities are provided in Goodwillie and Reynolds (2003). Some of this research originated as part of an integrated project (Waldren et al., 2015) that was also funded by NPWS, which studied the conservation status (flora, aquatic invertebrates and algae, hydrology and hydrochemistry, soils and conservation status) of 22 turloughs. ...
... There have been many previous studies on turlough geomorphology, hydrology, ecology, and conservation importance (e.g., Coxon, 1987;Sheehy Skeffington et al., 2006) with summaries of turlough wetland plant and freshwater habitats and communities described in Goodwillie and Reynolds (2003). These were followed by a more integrated project (Waldren et al., 2015) studying the conservation status (vegetation habitats, invertebrates, water quality, hydrology, etc.) of 22 turloughs. ...
A 28-year hydrological record on four intermittent wetlands (turloughs) in a hydraulically linked karst area in the west of Ireland was used to assess ecohydrological metrics for different vegetation communities. A methodology using a combination of continuous water level monitoring and high resolution topographic surveying was used to develop a detailed hydrological model of the karst network, from which water levels at any point within the turloughs can be defined at any time during the 28-year period (1989 to 2017). The flood conditions experienced across the spatial distributions for different vegetation communities (as mapped by a field survey) have then been collated and presented as statistical distributions for flood duration, flood depth, flood frequency and mean temperature/global radiation at the time of year in spring when the flood waters start to recede. Analysis of these four turloughs has revealed distinct differences between vegetation communities, from Eleocharis acicularis communities at the turlough base typically experiencing 6 to 7 months of inundation per year compared to the limestone pavement community at the top fringes of the turloughs only flooded from 1 to 2 months per year. An approach that used Sentinel-2 satellite data to provide an assessment of whether there have been changes in the spatial distribution of the communities is also presented. Such metrics can be evaluated alongside other variables such as water quality (particularly nutrients), soil type and land-use, in order to understand the habitat requirements for such plant communities and their associated ecological systems.
... Wetlands ecosystems are known for having the highest plant communities on the planet (Skeffington et al. 2006;Hebb et al. 2013;Wetser et al. 2015). These plant communities are the key components of this ecosystem function and stability. ...
Moualki N, Boukrouma N. 2021. The influence of environmental factors on the distribution and composition of plant species in Oued Charef dam, North East of Algeria. Biodiversitas 22: 346-353. Identification of the primary factors that influence the ecological distribution of species groups is important to managers of Oued Charef dam in northern Algeria. This study aimed to identify main ecological species groups, describe the site conditions associated with these species groups, and the relationships between environmental factors and the distribution of ecological species groups using Ward’s cluster analysis for classification and principal component analysis (PCA). For this purpose, 50 plots (200 m2 each) were sampled using the Braun- Blanquet method. Soil samples were collected and analyzed to study soil properties. Multivariate analysis methods were used to classify and determine the relationship between species composition and environmental factors and to recognize ecological species groups. The R i386 (version 4.0.3) software was used for data analyzing. Ward's cluster analysis when applied on terrestrial species data gives three groups distinctly distributed on ordination plan. In cluster groups of terrestrial species Group (1) is dominated by Daisies chrysanthemum, Group (2) by Cynodon dactylon L, and Group (3) dominated by Fumana thymifolia. The groups of terrestrial species are readily superimposed on PCA ordination plane. The most important environmental factors associated with terrestrial species composition in Oued Charef dam communities were conductivity (EC), FSA, FSI, clay, salinity, phosphorus (PO4), TN (nitrogen), nitrates (NO3), and nitrites (NO2). While among the edaphic factors only pH showed a negative correlation to plant species this may due to the anthropogenic disturbances however further studies are needed to explore the rest of parts of the said regions. This study gives important insights on ecological relationships between plant biodiversity and soil chemical in a primary wetland ecosystem in northeast of Algeria.
... The least hydrotechnically modified among them are the poljes of the Classical Karst in Slovenia (area between Ljubljana and the port cities of Trieste and Rijeka; for location see Fig. 1). Intermittent lakes in karst areas are also characteristic of Ireland, where they are known as "turloughs", and they also occur in Spain, Italy, Estonia, Canada, the states of Tennessee and Kentucky in the USA, the provinces of Guangxi, Guizhou and Yunnan in China, Minas Gerais state in Brazil, and elsewhere (Auler 1995;López-Chicano et al. 2002;Milanović 2004;Sheehy Skeffington et al. 2006;Zhou 2007;Simpson and Florea 2009;Naughton et al. 2012;Parise 2015). ...
The karst environment presents a special challenge when it comes to identifying groundwater/surface-water interactions. Existing definitions of areas of regular flooding in karst regions are too general and lack a measurable approach for the determination of flood-liable land. This paper proposes a means of specific definition and quantitative determination of intermittently flooded karst areas, which takes into account the extent, duration and frequency of flooding, and includes the identification of data sources and processing methods. The procedure, involving spatial layers, was developed using a pilot area and tested in three additional areas in Slovenia. The derived definition determines that flood-liable land within karst poljes and intermittent lakes comprise areas where stagnant water or stream overflow is present for at least 10 days/year over a period of 30 years, and these waters have direct contact with groundwater. The results show that the proposed procedure is applicable to areas with different geomorphological settings and to areas where the quantity and quality of available data vary. The study is an example of the practical application of knowledge on karst, as the findings can be used for short-term purposes (mapping flood areas, determination of habitats) and long-term purposes (study of impacts of environmental changes). Attention should be drawn to the lack of available data and the fact that the national networks of hydrological observatories are often too sparse for this purpose. This study raises awareness of these shortcomings and improves the planning or expansion of such a network in collaboration with experts.
