Key Species Responses - CLLAMMecology technical briefing
1. HEADLINE TO BE PLACED IN
THIS SPACE
CLLAMMecology
Key Species Program
David Paton, Daniel Rogers, Sabine Dittmann, Alec Rolston, Qifeng Ye,
Craig Noell, Bronwyn Gillanders and Andrew Munro
CLLAMMecology Research Cluster partners:
2. Key species responses
Document responses for a suite of species from key
functional groups to water regimes:
-Aquatic plants (Ruppia tuberosa)
-Macrobenthic invertebrates (polychaetes, dipterans)
-Fish (abundant species, commercial species)
-Aquatic birds (waders, piscivores, herbivores)
•In situ observations along the salinity gradient of the Coorong
•In situ responses to changes in salinity (environmental flows)
•Ex situ – experimental manipulations where feasible
•Where available used long-term data sets to track changes over time
5. Changes in abundance of Ruppia
tuberosa at five sites sampled in
winter from 1999- 2008
6. Changes in abundances of Ruppia tuberosa
propagules (seeds & turions) in January at five
sites in the southern Coorong.
% Contribution of turions to propagule bank
2001-2006: 46-82
2007: 15
2008: 3
7. Response outputs from Non-
Parametric Multiplicative
Regressions conducted on field
data using Hyperniche software.
Best Model (highest xR2) had four
explanatory variables:
- max salinity
- min salinity
- aver salinity
- water level days
8. Distribution of
Ruppia tuberosa in the
Coorong.
Predicted
- dark blue = absent
- red = highest abundances
Actual
- Black + = absent
- Yellow spots= present
16. Changes in fish species
richness and abundance
of selected fish along the
Coorong during 2006-07
17. Dendogram of abundance of fish species from 100 seine net samples using Bray-Curtis similarities
and illustrating presence of six clusters (48% similarity or greater) spread along the Coorong.
18. MDS ordination of the species abundance data 1(00 seine net samples) between October 2006
and September 2008. Boundaries indicate the six groups at similarity levels of 48%. Stress =
0.14.
19. Field-based salinity ranges for fish sampled in the
Coorong (2006-08)
Species Salinity (g/L)
min max
Smallmouth Hardyhead 13 134
Yellow-eye Mullet 13 74
Greenback Flounder 13 74
Sandy Sprat 13 69
Mulloway 13 62
Tamar Goby 13 60
West Aust Salmon 13 60
Bony Bream 30 60
Black Bream 30 60
Congoli 39 62
Common Galaxias 30 45
20. 14
(a) 120
12
100
10
Patterns of otolith chemistry for
-1
80
8
Smallmouth Hardyhead
Salinity
Ba:Ca µmol
60
6 sampled along the Coorong
mol
4 40 showing that Barium:Calcium
c
2 20 ratios increase at higher
0 0
salinities while Strotium:
B19 BCS LBC CS PP MP NM HG JP SC
Calcium ratios do not.
Location
5 This may allow periods of historic
(b)
120 exposure to higher salinities to be
4
100
determined for fish in the Coorong
and assist in understanding their
-1
3 80
movements and preferences for
Salinity
Sr:Ca mmol
60 water of different salinity
2
mol
40
c
1
20
0 0
B19 BCS LBC CS PP MP NM HG JP SC
Location
22. Map showing
sites used for
monitoring bird
behaviour and
regions used in
analyses of water
bird counts and
food resources
23. NMS plot of Bray-Curtis dissimilarities for waterbird communities in
different regions of the Coorong. (Fourth root transformed abundance
data for waterbird species over 7 regions and 8 years. Final stress
0.14).
24. NMS ordination plot of Bray-Curtis dissimilarities of the Coorong waterbird
communities for the three components of each region (stress = 0.11). Ordination is
based on fourth-root transformed data of the mean abundance (n = 8 years) of each
waterbird species within each region and component.
25. Changes in bird species richness (red) and diversity (blue) along the Coorong
29. Abundances of Black Swan in
the South Lagoon correlate
with changes in the abundance
of Ruppia tuberosa in the
South Lagoon
30. Abundances of Fairy Terns and
Australian Pelicans in the South
Lagoon correlate with abundances of
Hardyhead fish in the South Lagoon
31. No relationship between
migratory sandpipers and
measures of food abundance
Lack of relationship may be due to:
-food density not sufficiently low to affect rates
at which birds harvest food
- brine shrimps and or ostracods may help
counter shortage of chironomids and Ruppia
propagules
32. Foraging performance
deteriorates rapidly on exposed
mudflats with distance away
from waterline for migratory
shorebirds
Area of exposed mudflat is not a measure
of habitat availability for shorebirds
33. Foraging by migratory
sandpipers is sensitive to small
changes (1-5cm) in water depth
Foraging is limited to areas covered by
shallow water (< 5cm). This variable
should be used to assess habitat
availability for these species
34. Key species responses: Conclusions
Marked longitudinal gradient in invertebrate, fish and bird
communities along the Coorong
.
Changes correlate with changes in salinity
- higher salinities support less diverse but different assemblages
- many species appear limited by high salinities
Different communities form part of the region’s biodiversity and
the diversity of these communities needs to be conserved
35. Key species responses: Conclusions
Significant reductions in distribution and abundance during
period of no flow linked to increasing salinity in southern
Coorong
.
Addressing high salinity is key management action required
Fish and benthic macro-invertebrates are likely to respond
quickly to reductions in salinity
Restoration of Ruppia tuberosa is likely to require additional
intervention given poor propagule bank
36. Key species responses: Conclusions
Bird populations likely to respond to increases in food resources,
particularly distribution of key foods
.
Precautionary notes
- conclusions and initial models largely based on correlations during a period of
ecological collapse and not “cause and effect”
- recovery may not follow the reverse trajectory
- need to monitor on-going changes to the system during no flow to test and refine
models
- need to repeat the above sampling when environmental flows are returned to test and
refine models for recovery