Pump my wetland: potential benefits of using water pumps fitted with large-mesh screens to conserve anurans in regulated floodplain environments

Damian R. Michael; Gilad Bino; Anthony Conallin; James Maguire; Skye Wassens

doi:10.1071/MF23158

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

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Pump my wetland: potential benefits of using water pumps fitted with large-mesh screens to conserve anurans in regulated floodplain environments

Damian R. Michael

^A ^* , Gilad Bino ^B , Anthony Conallin ^C , James Maguire ^C and Skye Wassens ^D

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Gulbali Institute for Agriculture, Water and Environment, Charles Sturt University, Albury, NSW 2640, Australia.

^B Centre for Ecosystem Science, School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.

^C Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (Environment, Energy and Science), Albury, NSW 2640, Australia.

^D School of Agricultural, Environmental and Veterinary Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Albury NSW 2640, Australia.

^* Correspondence to: dmichael@csu.edu.au

Handling Editor: Max Finlayson

Marine and Freshwater Research 74(17) 1445-1454 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF23158

Submitted: 16 August 2023 Accepted: 31 October 2023 Published: 20 November 2023

© 2023 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

Water pumps fitted with filtering screens are effective for delivering water to floodplain environments and excluding large-bodied exotic fish; yet, the benefits to wetland fish and anurans are unknown.

Aims

To quantify fish and tadpole responses to refilling wetlands with water pumps fitted with large-mesh screens following drawdown v. overland reconnections in the mid-Murrumbidgee region of New South Wales.

Methods

Frog and fish communities were compared between wetlands under managed inundation and overland reconnections by using PERMANOVA, and non-metric multidimensional scaling was used to evaluate community divergence between watering strategies. Classification and regression trees were used to identify thresholds in explanatory variables and predicted threshold responses in fish and tadpole abundance.

Key results

Fish and tadpole communities differed in relation to watering strategies. Managed inundation resulted in a higher abundance of tadpole species and one native fish, whereas overland reconnections resulted in a high abundance of exotic fish species and fewer tadpoles. Water depth was a driver of tadpole abundance in two species, including the threatened southern bell frog (Litoria raniformis).

Conclusions and implications

Using filtered pumps with large-mesh screens to deliver water to wetlands of high conservation value may be an effective strategy for reducing large-bodied exotic fish and enhancing frog and fish populations in regulated floodplain systems.

Keywords: alien species, environmental water, fish screens, frog conservation, invasive fish management, larval anurans, management intervention, pumping, wetland restoration.

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