Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/20259
Title: Fish Assemblage Patterns Across a Gradient of Flow Regulation in an Australian Dryland River System
Contributor(s): Balcombe, S R (author); Arthington, A H (author); Thoms, Martin  (author)orcid ; Wilson, G G (author)
Publication Date: 2011
DOI: 10.1002/rra.1345
Handle Link: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/20259
Abstract: Hydrological regime, physical habitat structure and water chemistry are interacting drivers of fish assemblage structure in floodplain rivers throughout the world. In rivers with altered flow regimes, understanding fish assemblage responses to flow and physico-chemical conditions is important in setting priorities for environmental flow allocations and other river management strategies. To this end we examined fish assemblage patterns across a simple gradient of flow regulation in the upper Murray-Darling Basin, Australia.We found clear separation of three fish assemblage groups that were spatially differentiated in November 2002, at the end of the winter dry season. Fish assemblage patterns were concordant with differences in water chemistry, but not with the geomorphological attributes of channel and floodplain waterholes. After the summer-flow period, when all in-channel river sites received flow, some floodplain sites were lost to drying and one increased in volume, fish assemblages were less clearly differentiated. The fish assemblages of river sites did not increase in richness or abundance in response to channel flow and the associated potential for increased fish recruitment and movement associated with flow connectivity. Instead, the more regulated river's fish assemblages appeared to be under stress, most likely from historical flow regulation. These findings have clear implications for the management of hydrological regimes and the provision of environmental flows in regulated rivers of the upper Murray-Darling Basin.
Publication Type: Journal Article
Source of Publication: River Research and Applications, 27(2), p. 168-183
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Place of Publication: United Kingdom
ISSN: 1535-1467
1535-1459
Fields of Research (FoR) 2008: 040699 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience not elsewhere classified
040607 Surface Processes
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2008: 970105 Expanding Knowledge in the Environmental Sciences
960699 Environmental and Natural Resource Evaluation not elsewhere classified
Peer Reviewed: Yes
HERDC Category Description: C1 Refereed Article in a Scholarly Journal
Appears in Collections:Journal Article

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