An ecosystem service approach to support integrated pond management: a case study using Bayesian belief networks--highlighting opportunities and risks.

Freshwater ponds deliver a broad range of ecosystem services (ESS). Taking into account this broad range of services to attain cost-effective ESS delivery is an important challenge facing integrated pond management. To assess the strengths and weaknesses of an ESS approach to support decisions in integrated pond management, we applied it on a small case study in Flanders, Belgium.

How to maximally support local and regional biodiversity in applied conservation? Insights from pond management.

Biodiversity and nature values in anthropogenic landscapes often depend on land use practices and management. Evaluations of the association between management and biodiversity remain, however, comparatively scarce, especially in aquatic systems. Furthermore, studies also tend to focus on a limited set of organism groups at the local scale, whereas a multi-group approach at the landscape scale is to be preferred.

Analysis of the microbial community structure in a membrane bioreactor during initial stages of filtration.

Membrane biofouling was investigated during the early stages of filtration in a laboratory-scale membrane bioreactor operated on molasses wastewater. The bacterial diversity and composition of the membrane biofilm and activated sludge were analyzed using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism coupled with 16S rRNA clone library construction and sequencing. The amount of extracellular polymeric substances produced by bacteria was investigated using spectroscopic methods.

Land use, genetic diversity and toxicant tolerance in natural populations of Daphnia magna.

Provided that gene flow is not too high, selection by local environmental conditions in heterogeneous landscapes can lead to genetic adaptation of natural populations to their local habitat. Pollution with anthropogenic toxicants may create pronounced environmental gradients that impose strong local selection pressures. Toxic contaminants may also directly impact genetic structure in natural populations by exhibiting genotoxicity or by causing population declines resulting in genetic bottlenecks.