Managing flows for frogs: wetland inundation extent and duration promote wetland-dependent amphibian breeding success

J. F. Ocock; A. Walcott; J. Spencer; S. Karunaratne; R. F. Thomas; J. T. Heath; D. Preston

doi:10.1071/MF23181

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

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Managing flows for frogs: wetland inundation extent and duration promote wetland-dependent amphibian breeding success

J. F. Ocock

^A ^B ^* , A. Walcott ^C , J. Spencer ^B ^C , S. Karunaratne ^D , R. F. Thomas ^B ^E , J. T. Heath ^C and D. Preston ^F

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Environment & Heritage Group, National Parks and Wildlife Service, Narrabri, NSW, Australia.

^B School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Centre for Ecosystem Science, UNSW Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

^C NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Environment & Heritage Group, Water, Wetlands & Coast Science, Lidcombe, NSW, Australia.

^D CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Butler Laboratory, Black Mountain, Acton, ACT, Australia.

^E NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Environment & Heritage Group, Water for the Environment, Parramatta, NSW, Australia.

^F NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Environment & Heritage Group, North-West Region, Moree, NSW, Australia.

^* Correspondence to: joanne.ocock@environment.nsw.gov.au

Handling Editor: Paul Frazier

Marine and Freshwater Research 75, MF23181 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF23181

Submitted: 18 September 2023 Accepted: 20 December 2023 Published: 24 January 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

Context

River regulation is a key threat to amphibian communities that continue to face global declines. Prior work in regulated river catchments has indicated that wetland inundation from connecting river flows supports breeding in some frog species more than others.

Aims

Our aim was to identify flow metrics influencing breeding and recruitment success in flow-dependent frogs, to derive flow–ecology relationships.

Methods

We conducted repeat surveys of frog communities between 2015 and 2020 across two important wetlands in the northern Murray–Darling Basin, Australia. Using random forest analyses, we investigated the influence of 22 explanatory variables on breeding activity and success.

Key results

Inundation extent was the most important driver of calling activity by flow-dependent species (increasing breeding attempts), whereas the volume of river flows in the preceding months was most important for increasing breeding success.

Conclusions

Two key features of the flow pulse are linked to breeding success for amphibians in floodplain wetland systems: (1) the size of the pulse as it relates to area of wetland inundated; and (2) the duration of connecting flows as a measure of wetland duration.

Implications

By establishing amphibian flow–ecology relationships, these species can be included in governmental environmental water objectives and management.

Keywords: environmental water, flow-dependent, frog conservation, Limnodynastes, Litoria, monitoring, Murray–Darling Basin, random forests.

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