Abundance and diversity of the waterbird community in a managed wetland ecosystem

none2The waterbird community was studied in the Comacchio Lagoon for wildlife conservation and ecosystem wise use purposes. The studied area, divided into 33 sectors, covered little less than half of the 120 km2 total surface and all types of habitat and human management. Censuses were carried out 2-4 times every month during three years; average numbers of the overall sampling period were used. The species were arranged into the following 15 guilds, depending on their main food and foraging strategy: Swimming ichthyophagous, Wading ichthyophagous, Flying ichthyophagous, Omnivores, Swimming invertebratophagous, Flying invertebratophagous, Probers, Peckers, Scythers, Malacophagous, Predators of ground animals, Raptors, Dabbling phytophagous, Diving poliphagous, Dabbling poliphagous. Because of the huge size difference among the species, the abundance was measured as consuming biomass. The species richness varied between 14 and 48 in the 33 sectors; the guild richness between 7 and 14. The species diversity (H’) varied between 0.64 and 3.68; the guild diversity between 0.57 and 2.86. A great spatial variation was found in both absolute abundance (2.17-147.23 kg) and density (1.57-147.23 kg/km2). The different portions of the ecosystem demonstrated a very different capacity to support abundant and/or diversified bird communities or defined guilds: this may be attributed mainly to human use and management of the territory.noneP. Boldreghini; A. Dall'AlpiP. Boldreghini; A. Dall'Alp