Resistance and Resilience of Murray-Darling Basin Fishes to Drought Disturbance

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Resistance and Resilience of Murray-Darling Basin Fishes to Drought Disturbance Resistance and Resilience of Murray- Darling Basin Fishes to Drought Disturbance Dale McNeil1, Susan Gehrig1 and Clayton Sharpe2 SARDI Publication No. F2009/000406-1 SARDI Research Report Series No. 602 SARDI Aquatic Sciences PO Box 120 Henley Beach SA 5022 April 2013 Final Report to the Murray-Darling Basin Authority - Native Fish Strategy Project MD/1086 “Ecosystem Resilience and the Role of Refugia for Native Fish Communities & Populations” McNeil et. al. 2013 Drought and Native Fish Resilience Resistance and Resilience of Murray- Darling Basin Fishes to Drought Disturbance Final Report to the Murray-Darling Basin Authority - Native Fish Strategy Project MD/1086 “Ecosystem Resilience and the Role of Refugia for Native Fish Communities & Populations” Dale McNeil1, Susan Gehrig1 and Clayton Sharpe2 SARDI Publication No. F2009/000406-1 SARDI Research Report Series No. 602 April 2013 Page | ii McNeil et. al. 2013 Drought and Native Fish Resilience This Publication may be cited as: McNeil, D. G., Gehrig, S. L. and Sharpe, C. P. (2013). Resistance and Resilience of Murray-Darling Basin Fishes to Drought Disturbance. Final Report to the Murray-Darling Basin Authority - Native Fish Strategy Project MD/1086 ―Ecosystem Resilience and the Role of Refugia for Native Fish Communities & Populations‖. South Australian Research and Development Institute (Aquatic Sciences), Adelaide. SARDI Publication No. F2009/000406-1. SARDI Research Report Series No. 602. 143pp. Front Cover Images – Lake Brewster in the Lower Lachlan River catchment, Murray-Darling Basin during extended period of zero inflows, 2007. Murray cod (Maccullochella peelii peelii), olive perchlet (Ambassis agassizii) and golden perch (Macquaria ambigua) from the, lower Lachlan River near Lake Brewster, 2007 (all images - Dale McNeil). 1South Australian Research and Development Institute (Aquatic Sciences) 2 Hamra Ave, West Beach, SA 5024. 2 Murray-Darling Freshwater Research Centre, Lower Basin Laboratory, Mildura, VIC. South Australian Research and Development Institute SARDI Aquatic Sciences 2 Hamra Avenue West Beach SA 5024 Telephone: (08) 8207 2400 Facsimile: (08) 8207 5406 http://www.sardi.sa.gov.au DISCLAIMER The authors warrant that they have taken all reasonable care in producing this report. The report has been through the SARDI internal review process, and has been formally approved for release by the Research Chief, Aquatic Sciences. Although all reasonable efforts have been made to ensure quality, SARDI does not warrant that the information in this report is free from errors or omissions. SARDI does not accept any liability for the contents of this report or for any consequences arising from its use or any reliance placed upon it. The SARDI Report Series is an Administrative Report Series which has not been reviewed outside the department and is not considered peer-reviewed literature. Material presented in these Administrative Reports may later be published in formal peer-reviewed scientific literature. © 2013 SARDI & Murray-Darling Freshwater Research Centre This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), no part may be reproduced by any process, electronic or otherwise, without the specific written permission of the copyright owner. Neither may information be stored electronically in any form whatsoever without such permission. Printed in Adelaide: April 2013 SARDI Publication No. F2009/000406-1 SARDI Research Report Series No. 602 Author(s): Dale McNeil1, Susan Gehrig1 and Clayton Sharpe2 Reviewer(s): Katherine Cheshire, Jason Nicol, John Koehn, Angela Arthington, Sam Lake and Peter Jackson and Rod Ward Approved by: Dr Jason Nicol Sub Program Leader – Plant Ecology Signed: Date: 21 October 2011 Distribution: Murray Darling Basin Authority, Murray-Darling Freshwater Research Centre, SAASC Library, University of Adelaide Library, Parliamentary Library, State Library and National Library Circulation: Public Domain Page | iii McNeil et. al. 2013 Drought and Native Fish Resilience Table of Contents List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... v List of Tables ................................................................................................................................ vi Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................... vii Executive Summary ................................................................................................................... viii 1.0 Introduction and Background................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Drought and the Murray-Darling Basin .............................................................................. 1 1.2 Climate and the Murray-Darling Basin ............................................................................... 2 1.3 Report Aims and Scope ...................................................................................................... 2 2.0 The Impact of Drought on freshwater ecosystems in the MDB ............................................ 4 2.1 What is Drought? ................................................................................................................. 4 2.2 How does drought impact aquatic habitats? ..................................................................... 5 3.0 How are Aquatic Biota Impacted by Drought? .................................................................... 11 3.1 Resistance Factors ............................................................................................................ 11 3.2 The Role of Drought Refugia ............................................................................................ 24 3.3 Deteriorating refugia condition under drought ............................................................... 30 4.0 Resilience of fishes under drought disturbance ................................................................. 32 4.1 Pre drought condition and anthropogenic impacts ........................................................ 32 4.2 Within-drought resilience factors ..................................................................................... 34 4.3 Post drought resilience factors ........................................................................................ 36 5.0 Conceptualising resilience to drought disturbance ............................................................ 39 6.0 Qualifying drought responses in MDB fishes ..................................................................... 45 6.1 Functional Response Groups and Guilds ........................................................................ 45 6.2 Drought response groups for fishes of the MDB ............................................................ 47 7.0 Assessing Drought Factors and Response Groups ........................................................... 54 7.1 Analytical Methodology .................................................................................................... 54 7.2 Results and Discussion .................................................................................................... 55 8.0 General Conclusions ............................................................................................................. 61 9.0 Species Information Tables .................................................................................................. 64 10.0 Appendices ........................................................................................................................ 124 11.0 References ......................................................................................................................... 126 Page | iv McNeil et. al. 2013 Drought and Native Fish Resilience List of Figures Figure 1. Seasonal drought disturbance increases throughout each dry season under the normal range of climatic variability, alleviated to varying degrees by intermittent wet seasons. Under supra- seasonal drought (red line), seasonal drought impacts become cumulative, with increasing impacts over time. ........................................................................................................................................ 7 Figure 2. Conceptual framework outlining resistance and resilience factors through a seasonal drought period. A supra seasonal drought would string a series of these seasonal drought periods together with new starting points and accumulating impacts (greatly reducing potential) by the second wet season. ....................................................................................................................... 41 Figure 3. Conceptual diagram outlining the responses of fish assemblages through consecutive dry and wet seasons, including drought and non-drought sequences. Conn. = hydrological connectivity across habitats, Isol. = habitat isolation. Arrows show pathways through model. ........................... 42 Figure 4. Preliminary plot analysis of total resistance versus total resilience for each of the 30 Murray-Darling Basin fish species. Scores were determined (where sufficient data existed) based on the sum total of individual resistance and resilience traits. Species identification follows: BG=barred galaxias, 2BF= two spined blackfish, RT=rainbow trout, RBF=river blackfish, MP=Macquarie perch, MG=Mountain galaxias, TC=trout cod, OP=olive
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