Influence of hydroperiod on aquatic food-web structure and energy production in a floodplain wetland: implications for environmental flow management

Lindsey K. Frost; Sarah J. Mika; Ross M. Thompson; Ivor Growns

doi:10.1071/MF23163

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

Previous Contents Vol 75(1)

Influence of hydroperiod on aquatic food-web structure and energy production in a floodplain wetland: implications for environmental flow management

Lindsey K. Frost

^A ^* , Sarah J. Mika ^A , Ross M. Thompson ^B and Ivor Growns

^A

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Aquatic Ecology and Restoration Group, School of Environmental and Rural Science, Faculty of Science, Agriculture, Business and Law, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia.

^B Centre for Applied Water Science and Institute for Applied Ecology, University of Canberra, Canberra, ACT 2617, Australia.

^* Correspondence to: lfrost4@une.edu.au

Handling Editor: Paul Frazier

Marine and Freshwater Research 75, MF23163 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF23163

Submitted: 18 August 2023 Accepted: 26 October 2023 Published: 20 November 2023

© 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

Environmental water is often used to manage floodplain wetlands that support many taxa, both terrestrial and aquatic. It is important to optimise the managed hydroperiod to maximise the provision of aquatically derived resources from wetlands.

Aims

To test the hypothesis that increasing hydroperiod affects food-web structure and energy production in floodplain wetlands.

Methods

Fatty acids and stable isotopes of δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N were used to define food-web structure, and estimate total energy production throughout a managed inundation event in a wetland in the northern Murray–Darling Basin.

Key results

Food-web complexity increased with an increasing hydroperiod in line with predictable patterns of community assemblage development, before reducing sharply immediately prior to drying. Energy availability increased with an increasing hydroperiod and there was a strong correlation (ρ = 0.669, P = 0.0001) between energy availability and fatty acid concentration, which was in turn related to patterns of taxon occurrence.

Conclusions and implications

Hydroperiod exerts a strong influence on aquatic invertebrate community trophic dynamics and energy provision. Planned flows should support maturation and stabilisation of the invertebrate community to optimise energy provision to consumers.

Keywords: ecosystem processes, energy, environmental flows, flow regulation, food web, hydrological regime, hydroperiod, wetlands.

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