Přispívá budování tůní k ochraně biodiverzity nížinné zemědělské krajiny?
| Title in English | Does Building Pools Contribute to Biodiversity Conservation in Farmland? |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2025 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Ochrana přírody |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| web | https://www.casopis.ochranaprirody.cz/pece-o-prirodu-a-krajinu/budovani-tuni-a-ochrana-biodiverzity/ |
| Keywords | artificial wetlands; lowlands; biodiversity; water quality; conservation |
| Description | Solving problems of wetland loss and degradation has currently been almost exclusively limited to the construction of new pools, ponds and reservoirs. This is a specific Czech way of approaching the aquatic habitat restoration. In the neighbouring countries, there has never been such a boom in building new pools as in the Czech Republic. According to the standard elaborated by the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic, man-made/artificial pools are supposed to fulfil the objectives of promoting nature conservation, especially strengthening and enhancing biological diversity. Research on wetlands in the agricultural landscape conducted by the authors is carried out in South Moravia where dredging of pools and reservoirs is a huge phenomenon. Between 2009 and 2023, more than 600 new small water bodies were built there, including more than 490 pools at a total cost of CZK 1.36 billion (EUR 54 million). In terms of investments in aquatic ecosystems, projects for the construction of pools, i.e. water bodies without outlet facilities, were the most common, together with the construction of water reservoirs with outlets (effectively fishponds). The problem arises especially when pools are planned and built on valuable habitats. A survey of more than 120 sites across South Moravia has shown that new pools face a number of difficulties, the most pressing of which are poor, sometimes appalling, water quality, lack of management resulting in rapid reed growth and early colonisation by fish, particularly invasive alien ones. If we want to help bring back water and with it wetland habitats and their biodiversity, change should start with a different set of rules aimed at better practice, in particular taking into account the current character of the sites, allowing the establishing dry habitats and pools with outlets in case of polluted water or overpopulated invasive alien fish, and, above all, clear support for other types of ecosystem restoration fully respecting the needs of the particular site. |
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