Resurveys of zooplankton metacommunities in ponds and wetlands

As part of the ERC “MetaChange” Project, we are embarking on a resurvey campaign for one particular kind of metacommunity—zooplankton in small freshwater ponds and wetlands— that were surveyed 10+ years previously.

By resurveying pond clusters embedded in landscapes with different local and landscape-level contexts, we will look at how landscape and local changes interact to alter patterns of biodiversity across scales. We place emphasis on capturing different forms of change, such as changes in landscape features and local environments.

In 2025, we begin our resurvey field campaign in Belgium, where we resample the ponds that were sampled by our colleagues at KU Leuven.

In many parts of the world, wetlands and pond metacommunities have lost large proportions of their surface area, whereas in others, they have gained in surface area. At the same time, some areas have experienced dramatic changes in land-use and conditions near ponds that changed their local properties, such as water chemistry. These changes may positively or negatively affect biodiversity.

In the summer of 2025, we are resurveying ponds that were previously examined by our Belgian colleagues. These are their initial studies:

The MANSCAPE project comprises species occurrence data of eight different organism groups (phytoplankton, diatoms, zooplankton, benthic chironomids, aquatic macro-invertebrates, macrophytes, amphibians and fish) and data on physical, chemical and morphometric variables of 126 small farmland ponds distributed over almost the entire Belgian territory. The samples were taken in 2003. You can view the dataset here: https://data.freshwaterbiodiversity.eu/ipt/resource?r=manscape

The TIPPINGPOND dataset represents a re-sampling of a subset of 61 MANSCAPE ponds in 2013. You can find out more about the study here: https://www.biodiversa.eu/2022/10/31/tippingpond/

The PONDSCAPE project conducted research on patterns of biodiversity and ecosystem functions in ponds at multiple spatial scales, and relates these to important factors and processes, such as succession, land use, pollution, pond creation and pond management. More about the study here: https://www.pondscape.be.