River regulation alters drivers of primary productivity along a tropical river-estuary system
M. A. Burford A E , A. T. Revill B , D. W. Palmer C , L. Clementson B , B. J. Robson D and I. T. Webster D
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Kessels Road, Nathan, Qld 4111, Australia.
B CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, Castray Esplanade, Hobart, Tas. 7001, Australia.
C Western Australian Department of Water, Kununurra, WA 6743, Australia.
D CSIRO Land and Water, GPO Box 1666, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia.
E Corresponding author. Email: m.burford@griffith.edu.au
Marine and Freshwater Research 62(2) 141-151 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF10224
Submitted: 24 August 2010 Accepted: 18 November 2010 Published: 24 February 2011
Abstract
Worldwide, rivers continue to be dammed to supply water for humans. The resulting regulation of downstream flow impacts on biogeochemical and physical processes, potentially affecting river and estuarine productivity. Our study tested the hypothesis that primary production in the downstream freshwater reaches of a dammed river was less limited by light and nutrients relative to downstream estuarine primary production. In a tropical dryland Australian river estuary, we found that water-column primary productivity was highest at freshwater sites that had lowest light attenuation. Nitrogen may also have limited primary productivity. Below the freshwater zone was a region of macrotidal mixing with high concentrations of suspended soil particles, nutrients and chlorophyll a, and lower but variable primary productivity rates. Light controlled productivity, but the algal cells may also have been osmotically stressed due to increasing salinity. Further downstream in the estuary, primary productivity was lower than the freshwater reaches and light and nutrient availability appear to be a factor. Therefore the reduced magnitude of peak-flow events due to flow regulation, and the resulting decrease in nutrient export, is likely to be negatively impacting estuarine primary production. This has implications for future development of dams where rivers have highly seasonal flow.
Additional keywords: light, nutrients, Ord River, river regulation, water quality.
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