Limnetica 34

Ver índice del número

Permanent and temporary ponds in Doñana National Park (SW Spain) are threatened by desiccation

Carmen Díaz-Paniagua & David Aragonés
2015
34
2
407-424
DOI: 
10.23818/limn.34.31

In Doñana National Park, most aquatic habitats are temporary. Ponds dry up during the summer, and are filled again when phreatic levels rise after heavy rains. Permanent and semipermanent ponds, and a chain of long-hydroperiod ponds are formed in an area of the park where discharges of the dune and regional aquifers coincide.

Over the last few decades, groundwater abstractions have severely affected the park. Using Landsat images (1975-2014), we estimated the variation in the inundated areas of the park’s largest ponds. All ponds have increased their dependency on annual rainfall in recent decades. Two seasonal ponds located close to urban pumping stations are currently dry. We found that other seasonal ponds have tended to have shorter hydroperiod and have dried up in the summer in recent years, including in very rainy years. The largest permanent pond had not such wide interannual fluctuations in its inundated area in the 1970s as those experienced recently. During the last decades, its inundated area is strongly correlated with annual rainfall, and the pond is close to desiccation in years of low rainfall.

These results show that this pond network is severely threatened by desiccation. It is urgent to control groundwater extraction in the area to preserve the integrity of this important wetland.

Volver