ANTHROPOGENIC CORRELATES OF SPECIES RICHNESS IN SOUTHEASTERN ONTARIO WETLANDS

We examined the relationship between the richness of four different we tland taxa (birds, mammals, herptiles, and plants) in 30 southeastern Ontario, Canada wetlands and two anthropogenic factors: road construct ion and forest removal/conversion on adjacent lands. Data were obtaine d from two sources: road densities and forest cover from 1:50,000 Gove rnment of Canada topographic maps and species lists and wetland areas from Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources wetland evaluation reports. Multiple regression analysis was used to model the relationships betw een species richness and wetland area, road density, and forest cover. Our results show a strong positive relationship between wetland area and specie richness for all taxa. The species richness of all taxa exc ept mammals was negatively correlated with the density of paved roads on lands up to 2 km from the wetland. Furthermore, both herptile and m ammal specie richness showed a strong positive correlation with the pr oportion of forest cover on lands within 2 km. These results provide e vidence that at the landscape level, road construction and forest remo val on adjacent lands pose significant risks to wetland biodiversity. Furthermore, they suggest that most existing wetland policies, which f ocus almost exclusively on activities within the wetland itself and/or a narrow buffer zone around the wetland perimeter, are unlikely to pr ovide adequate protection for wetland biodiversity.