Fish assemblages of an Australian dryland river: abundance, assemblage structure and recruitment patterns in the Warrego River, Murray–Darling Basin
Stephen R. Balcombe A E , Angela H. Arthington A , Neal D. Foster B , Martin C. Thoms C , Glenn G. Wilson D and Stuart E. Bunn AA Cooperative Research Centre For Freshwater Ecology, Centre for Riverine Landscapes, Griffith University, Nathan, Qld 4111, Australia.
B New South Wales Department of Natural Resources, PO Box 550, Tamworth, NSW 2340, Australia.
C University of Canberra, ACT 2016, Australia.
D Murray–Darling Freshwater Research Centre, Goondiwindi, Qld 4390, Australia.
E Corresponding author. Email: s.balcombe@griffith.edu.au
Marine and Freshwater Research 57(6) 619-633 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF06025
Submitted: 8 February 2006 Accepted: 19 July 2006 Published: 31 August 2006
Abstract
Fish in dryland rivers must cope with extreme variability in hydrology, temperature and other environmental factors that ultimately have a major influence on their patterns of distribution and abundance at the landscape scale. Given that fish persist in these systems under conditions of high environmental variability, dryland rivers represent ideal systems to investigate the processes contributing to and sustaining fish biodiversity and recruitment in variable environments. Hence, spatial and temporal variation in fish assemblage structure was examined in 15 waterholes of the Warrego River between October 2001 and May 2003. Fish assemblages in isolated waterholes were differentiated at the end of the dry 2001 winter but were relatively similar following high summer flows in January 2002 as a consequence of high hydrological connectivity among waterholes. Small, shallow waterholes supported more species and higher abundances than large-deep waterholes. Large, deep waterholes provided important refuge for large-bodied fish species such as adult yellowbelly, Macquaria ambigua, and the eel-tailed catfish, Tandanus tandanus. Recruitment patterns of bony bream (Nematalosa erebi), Hyrtl’s tandan (Neosilurus hyrtlii) and yellowbelly were associated with high flow events and backwater inundation; however recruitment of yellowbelly and bony bream was also evident following a zero-flow period. Departures from typical flood-induced seasonal spawning patterns may reflect opportunistic spawning behaviours appropriate to the erratic patterns of flooding and dry spells in dryland rivers.
Extra keywords: alien species, connectivity, geomorphology, hydrology, refugia, spatial scale.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the various Dryland Refugia team members and volunteers who provided field support, and the following landholders for property access: Cecil Adcock, Gordon Cuff, Bill Fisher, Michael Gardiner, Hugh Miller, Ronald McIntosh, and John O’Sullivan. Our research was conducted under Queensland Fisheries Permit PRM00157K and Griffith University Animal Experimentation Ethics Committee permit AES/03/02.
Amoros, C. , and Bornette, G. (2002). Connectivity and biocomplexity in waterbodies of riverine floodplains. Freshwater Biology 47, 761–776.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Arthington, A. H. , Balcombe, S. R. , Wilson, G. A. , Thoms, M. C. , and Marshall, J. (2005). Spatial and temporal variation in fish assemblage structure in isolated waterholes during the 2001 dry season of an arid-zone river, Cooper Creek, Australia. Marine and Freshwater Research 56, 25–35.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Bishop, K. A. , Pidgeon, R. W. , and Walden, D. J. (1995). Studies on fish movement dynamics in a tropical floodplain river: prerequisites for a procedure to monitor the impacts of mining. Australian Journal of Ecology 20, 81–107.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Brown, P. , Sivakumaran, K. P. , Stoessel, D. , and Giles, A. (2005). Population biology of carp (Cyprinus carpio L.) in the mid-Murray River and Barmah Forest Wetlands, Australia. Marine and Freshwater Research 56, 1151–1164.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Closs, G. P. , and Lake, P. S. (1996). Drought, differential mortality and the coexistence of a native and an introduced fish species in a south east Australian intermittent stream. Environmental Biology of Fishes 47, 17–26.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
King, A. J. (2005). Ontogenetic dietary shifts of fishes in an Australian floodplain river. Marine and Freshwater Research 56, 215–225.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Magoulick, D. D. , and Kobza, R. M. (2003). The role of refugia for fishes during drought: a review and synthesis. Freshwater Biology 48, 1186–1198.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Mallen-Cooper, M. , and Stewart, I. (2003). Age, growth and non-flood recruitment of two potamodromous fishes in a large semi-arid temperate river system. River Research and Applications 19, 697–719.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Parsons, M. E. , Thoms, M. C. , and Norris, R. N. (2004). Development of a standardised approach to river habitat assessment in Australia. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 98, 109–130.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed |
Rodriguez, M. A. , and Lewis, W. M. (1997). Structure of fish assemblages along environmental gradients in floodplain lakes of the Orinoco River. Ecological Monographs 67, 109–128.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Sheldon, F. , Boulton, A. J. , and Puckridge, J. T. (2002). Conservation value of variable connectivity: aquatic invertebrate assemblages of channel and floodplain habitats of a central Australian arid-zone river, Cooper Creek. Biological Conservation 103, 13–31.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Wright, J. P. , and Flecker, A. S. (2004). Deforesting the riverscape: the effects of wood on fish diversity in a Venezuelan piedmont stream. Biological Conservation 120, 439–447.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |