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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 56(4)

Tareena Billabong – a palaeolimnological history of an ever-changing wetland, Chowilla Floodplain, lower Murray–Darling Basin, Australia

Peter A. Gell A D , Sorell Bulpin A , Peter Wallbrink B , Gary Hancock B and Sophie Bickford C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Geographical & Environmental Studies, University of Adelaide, SA, 5005, Australia.

B CSIRO Land and Water, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia.

C CSIRO Plant Industry, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia.

D Corresponding author. Email: peter.gell@adelaide.edu.au

Marine and Freshwater Research 56(4) 441-456 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF04107
Submitted: 25 May 2004  Accepted: 31 March 2005   Published: 27 June 2005

Abstract

A 427-cm sediment core was extracted from Tareena Billabong, a Murray River floodplain wetland in the extreme south-west of New South Wales, Australia. Analysis of fossil diatoms and pollen, sediment 210Pb and 137Cs profiles and radiocarbon and luminescence dating reveal that Tareena Billabong has undergone substantial environmental change in its ~5000-year history. Shortly after its formation, the billabong was a freshwater lagoon with a diatom flora dominated by Synedra ulna and Planothidium lanceolatum. An increase in Aulacoseira granulata, a river plankton dominant today, reflects two phases of increased connectivity with the Murray River in the mid to late Holocene. A shift to lagoonal taxa after ~3000 years BP is attributed to water balance and river-flow changes, possibly associated with regional climate change. Importantly, it appears to have undergone an extended phase of increasing turbidity, and possibly wetland salinity, commencing ~3000 years BP. Sedimentation increased at least 15-fold in the European phase. Billabong salinity increased markedly soon after European settlement, reaching a peak in the late 1800s AD. While regulation then increased the degree of connection between the billabong with the River in the 1920s AD, salinity levels remained high. Increased salinity is revealed by increases in the diatom taxa Amphora spp., Cyclotella meneghiniana, Gyrosigma acuminatum, Planothidium delicatulum and Tryblionella hungarica and by declines in Casuarinaceae, Eucalyptus, Myriophyllum and Cyperaceae pollen. Tareena Billabong was subjected to considerable environmental pressures from the early stages of European settlement in terms of sediment load, hydrological change and salinity.

Extra keywords: diatoms, lead-210, river regulation, salinisation, sedimentation rates.


Acknowledgments

Den, Belinda and Paul Hansen provided support, advice and access to their personal collection. Jeannette Hope provided guidance. Chris Grivell prepared samples for diatom and pollen enumeration. Sue Murray drafted Fig. 1. Chris Crothers drafted Fig. 8. John Prescott, Gillian Robertson, John Tibby and Martin Williams and four anonymous reviewers provided valuable comments on the manuscript. Gillian Robertson and the Archaeometry Research Group of the University of Adelaide are thanked for the provision of luminescence ages. This project was supported by a University of Adelaide small grant to PG.


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Appendix 1.  Simple weighted averaging optima for salinity and pH of diatom taxa in Fig. 5 and included in the transfer function of Gell (1995, 1997, unpublished data)
A1