Vegetation and inundation characteristics of waterbird breeding sites in the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia

K. J. Brandis; R. J. Francis; G. Bino

doi:10.1071/MF23221

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

Previous Next Contents Vol 75(7)

Vegetation and inundation characteristics of waterbird breeding sites in the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia

K. J. Brandis

^A ^* , R. J. Francis ^A and G. Bino

^A

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Centre for Ecosystem Science, University of New South Wales Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.

^* Correspondence to: kate.brandis@unsw.edu.au

Handling Editor: Paul Frazier

Marine and Freshwater Research 75, MF23221 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF23221

Submitted: 17 November 2023 Accepted: 13 April 2024 Published: 10 May 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

The Murray–Darling Basin serves as a crucial habitat for aggregating waterbirds; however, decades of large-scale regulation of rivers and water resources have adversely affected waterbird breeding in the Basin.

Aims

To understand the characteristics of wetlands that attract and support aggregating waterbirds, focusing on identifying environmental conditions conducive to waterbird breeding.

Methods

In total, 52 wetland sites across the Murray–Darling Basin, with high waterbird abundances, were identified, of which 26 supported waterbird breeding. Classification models were developed using temporally static and dynamic environmental datasets to discern wetland characteristics associated with waterbird breeding.

Key results

Analyses showed that wetlands supporting waterbird breeding contained a maximum inundated area of ‘other shrublands’ exceeding 3.635 km² and variation in normalised difference vegetation index, possibly reflective of a ‘boom and bust’ ecological response.

Conclusions

Understanding the habitat requirements of wetlands to prompt waterbird breeding is critical for effective environmental water management and conservation strategies.

Implications

Targeted wetland management and environmental water allocation to support waterbird breeding populations in the Murray–Darling Basin is essential for continued waterbird breeding. There is a need for continued research to refine management strategies and ensure the long-term sustainability of waterbird populations in the face of ongoing environmental challenges.

Keywords: colonial waterbirds, conservation, inundation, Murray–Darling Basin, NDVI, river management, vegetation, waterbird breeding, wetland.

References

Arthur AD, Reid JRW, Kingsford RT, McGinness HM, Ward KA, Harper MJ (2012) Breeding flow thresholds of colonial breeding waterbirds in the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia. Wetlands 32, 257-265.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Australian Bureau of Statstics (2022) Water use on Australian farms. Available at https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/industry/agriculture/water-use-australian-farms/latest-release

Bancroft GT, Gawlik DE, Rutchey K (2002) Distribution of wading birds relative to vegetation and water depths in the northern everglades of Florida, USA. Waterbirds 25(3), 265-277.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Bino G, Steinfeld C, Kingsford RT (2014) Maximizing colonial waterbirds’ breeding events using identified ecological thresholds and environmental flow management. Ecological Applications 24(1), 142-157.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |

Bino G, Brandis K, Kingsford RT, Porter J (2020) Waterbird synchrony across Australia’s highly variable dryland rivers – risks and opportunities for conservation. Biological Conservation 243, 108497.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Brandis K (2010) Colonial waterbird breeding in Australia: wetlands, water requirements and environmental flows. PhD thesis, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Brandis KJ, Kingsford RT, Ren S, Ramp D (2011) Crisis water management and ibis breeding at Narran Lakes in arid Australia. Environmental Management 48(3), 489-498.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |

Brandis KJ, Bino G, Spencer JA, Ramp D, Kingsford RT (2018) Decline in colonial waterbird breeding highlights loss of Ramsar wetland function. Biological Conservation 225, 22-30.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Brandis KJ, Bino G, Kingsford RT (2021) More than just a trend: integrating population viability models to improve conservation management of colonial waterbirds. Environmental Management 68(4), 468-476.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |

Brandis K, Bonsen G, Wooster E, Hasselerharm C, Juillard L, Francis R (2022) Macquarie marshes colonial waterbird reproductive success monitoring 2022. Final report to the Australian Government Commonwealth Environmental Water Office. Centre for Ecosystem Science, UNSW, Australia.

Breiman L, Friedman JH, Olshen RA, Stone CJ (1984) ‘Classification and regression trees.’ (Chapman and Hall: New York, NY, USA)

Briggs SV, Lawler WG, Thornton SA (1998) Relationship between control of water regimes in River Red Gum wetlands and abundance of waterbirds. Corella 22(2), 47-55.
| Google Scholar |

Brock MA, Capon SJ, Porter LJ (2006) Disturbance of plant communities dependent on desert rivers. In ‘Ecology of desert rivers’. (Ed. RT Kinsgsford) pp. 100–132. (Cambridge University Press)

Capon SJ, James CS, Williams L, Quinn GP (2009) Responses to flooding and drying in seedlings of a common Australian desert floodplain shrub: Muehlenbeckia florulenta Meisn. (tangled lignum). Environmental and Experimental Botany 66, 178-185.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Carrick R (1962) Breeding, movements and conservation of ibises (Threskiornithidae) in Australia. CSIRO Wildlife Research 7(1), 71-90.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Casanova MT, Brock MA (2000) How do depth, duration and frequency of flooding influence the establishment of wetland plant communities. Plant Ecology 147, 237-250.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Craig AE, Walker KF, Boulton AJ (1991) Effects of edaphic factors and flood frequency on the abundance of lignum (Muehlenbeckia florulenta Meissner) (Polygonaceae) on the River Murray Floodplain, South Australia. Australian Journal of Botany 39, 431-443.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Department of Climate Change Energy the Environment and Water (2022) Northern Murray–Darling Basin. (DCCEEW) Available at https://www.dcceew.gov.au/water/policy/mdb/northernbasin

Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (2012) Australian national aquatic ecosystem classification framework. (Australian Government) Available at https://www.dcceew.gov.au/water/cewo/monitoring/aquatic-ecosystems-toolkit

Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (2020a) Australia – present major vegetation groups – NVIS version 6.0 (Albers 100 m analysis product). Published date 14 June 2023, date updated 23 January 2024. (Australian Government) Available at https://fed.dcceew.gov.au/maps/e7c56ffd33714b1bbf64893b4f13c34a/about

Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (2020b) Australia – present major vegetation subgroups – NVIS version 6.0 (Albers 100 m analysis product). Published date 14 June 2023, date updated 22 April 2024. (Australian Government) Available at https://fed.dcceew.gov.au/maps/96c3ac9325e14816a6ef450998571146/about

Didan K (2021) MODIS/Terra vegetation indices 16-day l3 global 250 m SIN grid V061. (NASA EOSDIS Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center) [Data set] 10.5067/MODIS/MOD13Q1.061

DiMiceli C, Townshend J, Carroll M, Sohlberg R (2021) Evolution of the representation of global vegetation by vegetation continuous fields. Remote Sensing of Environment 254, 112271.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Docker B, Robinson I (2014) Environmental water management in Australia: experience from the Murray–Darling Basin. International Journal of Water Resources Development 30(1), 164-177.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Fawcett T (2006) An introduction to ROC analysis. Pattern Recognition Letters 27(8), 861-874.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Gorelick N, Hancher M, Dixon M, Ilyushchenko S, Thau D, Moore R (2017) Google Earth engine: planetary-scale geospatial analysis for everyone. Remote Sensing of Environment 202, 18-27.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Grafton RQ, Wheeler SA (2018) Economics of water recovery in the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia. Annual Review of Resource Economics 10(1), 487-510.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Green AJ, Elmberg J (2014) Ecosystem services provided by waterbirds. Biological Reviews 89(1), 105-122.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |

Green AJ, Jenkins KM, Bell D, Morris PJ, Kingsford RT (2008) The potential role of waterbirds in dispersing invertebrates and plants in arid Australia. Freshwater Biology 53, 380-392.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Hahn S, Bauer S, Klaassen M (2007) Estimating the contribution of carnivorous waterbirds to nutrient loading in freshwater habitats. Freshwater Biology 52(12), 2421-2433.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Hahn S, Bauer S, Klaassen M (2008) Quantification of allochthonous nutrient input into freshwater bodies by herbivorous waterbirds. Freshwater Biology 53, 181-193.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Hersbach H, Bell B, Berrisford P, Hirahara S, Horányi A, Muñoz-Sabater J, Nicolas J, Peubey C, Radu R, Schepers D, Simmons A, Soci C, Abdalla S, Abellan X, Balsamo G, Bechtold P, Biavati G, Bidlot J, Bonavita M, De Chiara G, Dahlgren P, Dee D, Diamantakis M, Dragani R, Flemming J, Forbes R, Fuentes M, Geer A, Haimberger L, Healy S, Hogan RJ, Hólm E, Janisková M, Keeley S, Laloyaux P, Lopez P, Lupu C, Radnoti G, de Rosnay P, Rozum I, Vamborg F, Villaume S, Thépaut JN (2020) The ERA5 global reanalysis. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 146(730), 1999-2049.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Jenkins KM, Boulton AJ (2003) Connectivity in a dryland river:short-term aquatic microinvertebrate recruitment following floodplain inundation. Ecology 84, 2708-2723.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Johnson H, Peat M, Swirepik J (2021) Active management of environmental water in the Murray–Darling Basin. In ‘Murray–Darling Basin, Australia’. (Eds BT Hart, NR Bond, N Byron, CA Pollino, MJ Stewardson) pp. 203–226. (Elsevier)

Killough B, Rizvi S, Lubawy A (2021) Advancements in the open data cube and the use of analysis ready data in the cloud. In ‘Proceedings of 2021 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium IGARSS’, 11–16 July 2021, Brussels, Belgium. pp. 1793–1795. (IEEE) 10.1109/IGARSS47720.2021.9553063

Kingsford RT, Johnson W (1998) Impact of water diversions on colonially nesting waterbirds in the Macquarie Marshes of Arid Australia. Colonial Waterbirds 21(2), 159-170.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Kingsford RT, Thomas RF (1995) The Macquarie Marshes in arid Australia and their waterbirds: a 50-year history of decline. Environmental Management 19(6), 867-878.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Kingsford RT, Brandis K, Thomas RF, Crighton P, Knowles E, Gale E (2004) Classifying landform at broad spatial scales: the distribution and conservation of wetlands in New South Wales, Australia. Marine and Freshwater Research 55, 17-31.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Kingsford RT, Roshier DA, Porter JL (2010a) Australian waterbirds – time and space travellers in dynamic desert landscapes. Marine and Freshwater Research 61(8), 875-884.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Kingsford RT, Brandis K, Jenkins KM, Nairn LC, Rayner TS (2010b) Measuring ecosystem responses to flow across organism scales. In ‘Ecosystem response modelling in the Murray–Darling Basin’. (Eds N Saintilan, I Overton) pp. 15–35. (CSIRO Publishing: Melbourne, Vic., Australia)

Kingsford RT, Porter JL, Brandis KJ, Ryall S (2020) Aerial surveys of waterbirds in Australia. Scientific Data 7, 172.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Krause C, Dunn B, Bishop-Taylor R, Adams C, Burton C, Alger M, Chua S, Phillips C, Newey V, Kouzoubov K, Leith A, Ayers D (2021) Digital Earth Australia notebooks and tools repository. (Geoscience Australia) Available at https://docs.dea.ga.gov.au/notebooks/README.html

Kuhn M (2008) Building predictive models in R using the caret package. Journal of Statistical Software 28(5), 1-26.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Leslie DJ (2001) Effect of river management on colonially nesting waterbirds in the Barmah–Millewa Forest, south-eastern Australia. Regulated Rivers: Research & Management 17(1), 21-36.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Maher MT, Braithwaite LW (1992) Patterns of waterbird use in wetlands of the Paroo, a river system of inland Australia. The Rangeland Journal 14(2), 128-142.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Marchant S, Higgins PJ (Eds) (1990) ‘Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic birds Volume 1 ratites to ducks.’ (Oxford University Press: Melbourne, Vic., Australia)

Martin GR, Portugal SJ (2011) Differences in foraging ecology determine variation in visual fields in ibises and spoonbills (Threskiornithidae). Ibis 153, 662-671.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Meeson N, Robertson AI, Jansen A (2002) The effects of flooding and livestock on post-dispersal seed predation in river red gum habitats. Journal of Applied Ecology 39(2), 247-258.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Mueller N, Lewis A, Roberts D, Ring S, Melrose R, Sixsmith J, Lymburner L, McIntyre A, Tan P, Curnow S, Ip A (2016) Water observations from space: mapping surface water from 25 years of Landsat imagery across Australia. Remote Sensing of Environment 174, 341-352.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Phillips LB, Hansen AJ, Flather CH (2008) Evaluating the species energy relationship with the newest measures of ecosystem energy: NDVI versus MODIS primary production. Remote Sensing of Environment 112(12), 4381-4392.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Pickens BA, King SL (2014) Linking multi-temporal satellite imagery to coastal wetland dynamics and bird distribution. Ecological Modelling 285, 1-12.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Rayner TS, Kingsford RT, Suthers IM, Cruz DO (2015) Regulated recruitment: native and alien fish responses to widespread floodplain inundation in the Macquarie Marshes, arid Australia. Ecohydrology 8(1), 148-159.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Roshier DA, Robertson AI, Kingsford RT, Green DG (2001) Continental-scale interactions with temporary resources may explain the paradox of large populations of desert waterbirds in Australia. Landscape Ecology 16, 547-556.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Roshier DA, Doerr VAJ, Doerr ED (2008) Animal movement in dynamic landscapes: interaction between behavioural strategies and resource distributions. Oecologia 156, 465-477.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |

Spencer J (2017) Evaluation of colonial waterbird breeding in NSW Murray–Darling Basin: 2006-16. NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Ustin SL (2004) ‘Remote sensing for natural resouce mangement and environmental monitoring’, 3rd edn. (Wiley: New York, NY, USA)

Wassens S, Turner A, Spencer J, Brandis K, Michie L, Duncan M, Thiem J, Thomas R, Shuang X, Kobayashi T, Bino G, Talbot S, Moore E, Heath J, Hall A (2022) Commonwealth environmental water office monitoring, evaluation and research program Murrumbidgee River system technical report, 2014-22. Charles Sturt University.