Grazing lands occupy 25% of the global land surface and intersect with numerous wetland resources. Wetlands embedded in grazing lands provide several well-known ecosystem services, including water and forage for livestock, high primary productivity, carbon sequestration, nutrient retention, flood amelioration, and climate buffering. In addition, wetlands are known for their high biodiversity and provide habitat for organisms critical to food webs and pest suppression. A key question is how to manage wetlands embedded in agricultural lands to sustain and enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services. In subtropical south central Florida, grazing landscapes are dotted by ephemeral wetlands which comprise 15-25% of these grasslands. We report here on how these wetlands are biodiversity hotspots within the grassland matrix. Wetland studies at the at MacArthur Agro-ecology Research Center (MAERC), a division of Archbold Biological Station, have recorded 180 plants, 181 insects, and 31 amphibians and fish as well many wetland birds, including nine species listed as threatened or endangered. These productive, isolated wetlands, numbering more than 600, support higher trophic levels. For example, MAERC contains one of the highest densities of Red-shouldered Hawks ever recorded in the science literature, and the landscape supports numerous apex species, including crested Caracara, barn owls, river otters, and bobcats. Our study results demonstrate that wetland connectivity via ditches, management of hydrology, and pasture management intensity are key drivers of wetland community diversity and composition, and other ecosystem services such as forage production and greenhouse gas dynamics. We also address how threats to wetland ecosystems on ranchlands including feral hogs, drainage, and altered fire regimes must be addressed to sustain and enhance wetland biodiversity and ecosystem services on ranchland whilst maintaining economic viability.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.