engleski

Can Odonata promote conservation of intermittent rivers in the Mediterranean?

Intermittent rivers, lotic habitats that cease to flow during dry periods of the year, make up a large proportion of the world’s inland waters, and are an important source of water in dry regions, such as the Mediterranean. Odonata are widely used as a valuable tool for assessing freshwater ecosystems, as the structure and composition of their assemblages indicate the ecological health and integrity of a particular habitat, as well as also environmental change due to anthropogenic impact. With the aim of investigating the bioindicator value of Odonata for intermittent rivers in the Mediterranean and thus the conservation relevance of such habitats based on the assemblages they support, we studied adult Odonata at four intermittent Mediterranean rivers in the Dinaric Western Balkans ecoregion. We analysed various diversity and conservation indices, and recorded significant differences in Odonata species richness and Croatian Conservation Odonatological index between the studied rivers. Although the highest values of these parameters were recorded for a river with lowest land cover heterogeneity, and high share of anthropogenic land use, this river is also characterized by the highest habitat heterogeneity, reflected through well-developed aquatic vegetation, which can support life cycle completion of different Odonata species. Our study confirms the importance of habitat structure and of the presence of aquatic vegetation for Odonata conservation. The results presented could contribute to the development of conservation measures for Mediterranean Odonata and for intermittent freshwater habitats

dragonflies ; threatened species ; land use ; diversity indices ; conservation indices

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