Patterns of invertebrate emergence and succession in flooded wetland mesocosms

Title
Patterns of invertebrate emergence and succession in flooded wetland mesocosms
Publication Date
2020-01
Author(s)
Growns, I
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8638-0045
Email: igrowns@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:igrowns
Lewis, S
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9770-2874
Email: slewis34@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:slewis34
Ryder, D
Tsoi, W
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8589-8774
Email: wtsoi@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:wtsoi
Vincent, B
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
CSIRO Publishing
Place of publication
Australia
DOI
10.1071/MF19351
UNE publication id
une:1959.11/31549
Abstract
Floodplain wetlands are some of the most productive ecosystems available to aquatic and terrestrial organisms. However, regulation of lowland rivers can disrupt ecological processes occurring in the river–floodplain ecosystems, and environmental water can be delivered to affected wetlands to maintain productivity. It is not well understood at what stage following inundation there would be sufficient invertebrate biomass and large-sized individuals to support production and reproduction of secondary consumers. In this study we follow changes in the abundances of invertebrates after wetting in three mesocosm trials using soil from two wetlands from the north of the Murray–Darling Basin over 6-week periods. Peak abundances generally occurred in either the fifth or sixth weeks, but abundances were high after 2–3 weeks. Our results suggest that inundation of wetlands using environmental watering can achieve high productivity within a short time frame, within weeks. However, how quickly the high productivity is passed on to second-order consumers remains unclear and should be an area of future research.
Link
Citation
Marine and Freshwater Research, 71(10), p. 1373-1377
ISSN
1448-6059
1323-1650
Start page
1373
End page
1377
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

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