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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 58(8)

Does adding wood to agricultural streams enhance biodiversity? An experimental approach

Rebecca E Lester A B C , Wendy Wright A and Michelle Jones-Lennon B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A School of Applied Sciences and Engineering, Monash University, Gippsland Campus, Churchill, Vic. 3842, Australia.

B Department of Primary Industries, Hazeldean Road, Ellinbank, Vic. 3821, Australia.

C Corresponding author. Email: rebecca.lester@flinders.edu.au

Marine and Freshwater Research 58(8) 687-698 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF06198
Submitted: 23 October 2006  Accepted: 9 May 2007   Published: 20 August 2007

Abstract

Riparian clearing and the removal of wood from channels have affected many streams in agricultural landscapes. As a result, these streams often have depauperate in-stream wood loads, and therefore decreased habitat complexity and lower levels of in-stream biodiversity. The introduction of wood was investigated as a possible rehabilitation technique for agricultural streams. Wood was re-introduced to eight streams in two separate high-rainfall, intensively grazed regions of Victoria, Australia and the effect on aquatic macroinvertebrate communities was measured. The addition of wood increased overall family richness and the richness of most functional feeding groups occupying edge and benthic habitats within the stream. Wood addition led to less overlap between benthic and edge macroinvertebrate communities, suggesting increased habitat heterogeneity within the stream ecosystem. Of all sampled habitats, wood supported the greatest density of families and was colonised by all functional feeding groups. Wood habitats also had the highest overall richness and supported the most taxa that were sensitive to disturbance. These findings suggest that re-introducing wood to agricultural streams is an appropriate rehabilitation technique where those streams are affected by reduced habitat complexity. Additional work is needed to confirm these findings over larger spatial and temporal scales.

Additional keywords: agricultural landscape, aquatic macroinvertebrate diversity, coarse woody debris, ecological restoration, stream rehabilitation, wood load.


Acknowledgements

This research was conducted as a part of R. Lester’s Ph.D. studies, supported by a scholarship from the School of Applied Sciences and Engineering, Monash University and in-kind support from the Department of Primary Industries, Ellinbank. We thank those landholders who generously providing access to their properties, and all those who assisted with the study, especially the Productive Grazing, Healthy Rivers project team. We also thank G. Quinn and P. S. Lake for assistance with experimental design, M. Hannah and P. Rayment for assistance in statistical analysis and R. Thompson, J. Larkins, P. Fairweather and three anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier versions of the manuscript.


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