Fish Assemblage Response to Experimental Rehabilitation in the Glenelg River, Victoria, Australia

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Fish Assemblage Response to Experimental Rehabilitation in the Glenelg River, Victoria, Australia Fish assemblage response to experimental rehabilitation in the Glenelg River, Victoria, Australia by Travis John Howson (B.Sc. Hons.) Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Deakin University July, 2013 Acknowledgements Emabarking on a significant journey such as this and seeing its conclusion, could not have been done without the help of a few fellow travellers along the way. Instigation and completion of this study could not have been undertaken without the assistance of the following people. First, I would like to especially thank my supervisor's: Associate Professor Belinda Robson, Dr Ty Matthews and Associate Professor Brad Mitchell. I am greatly appreciative of you always making time to discuss issues at any moment, even when hundreds to thousands of kilometres away and providing much appreciated support, especially throwing work my way to make life more content. Your enthusiasm and assistance was invaluable, and I am especially grateful your wisdom, support, encouragement and of course, friendship. I am also indebted to the knowledge passed to me from helpful discussions with Dr. Ed Chester, Dr. Alecia Belgrove, Dr. Craig Styan, Professor Gerry Quinn, Associate Professor Laurie Laurenson, Dr. Paul Jones and Dr. Daniel Ierodiaconnou. Together with my supervisors, I have learnt alot and especially grateful for meeting such a great bunch of people who gave me very different insights into the discipline of ecology. Your discussions, experiences and thoughts were invaluable and have immensely assisted my development in the field of ecology. Anonymous reviewers of several chapters of this work assisted in improving earlier drafts, and provided much appreciated external insights into the communication of my thoughts to the wider scientific audience. Peter Swanson from Glenelg Hopkins CMA who provided water quality and river discharge data on the Harrow rehabilitated reach. Peter and Heinz de Chelard (Earth Tech Pty. Ltd.) also provided informative discussions on the rehabilitation procedure at Harrow, while Wayne Koster from Arthur Rylah Institute, Department of Sustainability and Environment provided before-period fish data. This project would also not be possible from the assisted financial support of Deakin University, iii Fisheries Victoria and Glenelg-Hopkins Catchment Management Authority. This research was supported by research permits from the Department of Primary Industries, the Department of Sustainability and Environment and the Deakin University Animal Welfare Committee. To those volunteers who assisted invaluably in the long weeks of field work, Joanne Dono, David Lambert, Kerrylyn Johnston, Alistair Becker, Mini Hogan, Chris Kennedy, Jake Toe, Mike Truong, Pete Kolotelo, and to Joanne Dono and Rachel Dono for review and editorial assistance, a special thank you as this project could not have been completed without your assistance. To my family, your support and putting up with me over the years has given me the opportunity to persue an long-life understanding of fish and their environments. I sincerely hope that shouldering all of the nuances of my personality, the best and particularly worst of times from my efforts, were worth it. To my friends and everyone else who assisted me along the way, a big thank you, your support and 'encouragement' ("when is it going to be finished?") helped to cross the line. Finally, a extra-special thankyou to Jo. There is no doubt that without you, your wisdom, patience, support and love, I could not have made it. iv List of Thesis Publications These articles have been accepted and published from research completed as part of this thesis. Howson, T. J., B. J. Robson, and B. D. Mitchell. (2009) Fish assemblage response to rehabilitation of a sand-slugged lowland river. River Research and Applications 25:1251-1267. Howson, T. J., B. J. Robson, and B. D. Mitchell. (2010) Patch-specific spawning is linked to restoration of a sediment-disturbed lowland river, south-eastern Australia. Ecological Engineering 36:920-929. Howson, T. J., B. J. Robson, Matthews, T. G. and B. D. Mitchell. (2012) Size and quantity of woody debris affects fish assemblages in a sediment-disturbed lowland river. Ecological Engineering 40:144-152. v Summary A number of historical anthropogenic, press-type disturbances have caused severe and lasting structural changes to the habitat of river-dwelling organisms. Conceptually, habitat restoration may offer a solution to sustained river degradation, but implementing restoration strategies to address these disturbances remains a significant challenge. The Glenelg River in western Victoria is a classic example of an Australian river impacted by multiple press-disturbances. This study examined the response of fish assemblages over a three year period to experimental rehabilitation consisting of re-introduced woody debris and sediment extraction to reconstruct run and pool channel patches. After three years of monitoring, the application of a reach-scale rehabilitation procedure did not positively influence fish assemblage structure. Unexpectedly, taxon richness and abundance decreased across unmodified and restored locations within six months of works completion, but had recovered to pre-restoration values by the last sampling surveys (summer 2005). Fish assemblage structure was related to significant changes in electrical conductivity, arising from from low river discharge associated with the Millenium drought. Although restoration aimed to provide greater resources (e.g. deeper water) for fish under increased stress from low flows in sediment-disturbed reaches, the larger, landscape-scale effect of drought appeared to have masked any potential benefit of the restoration procedures. The effect of the experimental restoration procedures on fish remained uncertain, especially if sediment extraction and woody debris replacement are both required to induce a response. Fish assemblage responses were hypothesised to depend on woody debris complexity (size and quantity) independent of modification to channel structure. To test this, a multiple Before-After, Control-Impact (MBACI) design approach was undertaken, adding small woody debris (SWD) to runs containg high and low amounts of large woody debris (LWD). High LWD locations had a higher taxa richness, but lower total abundances of fish. Adding SWD further vi increased the abundances of several species known to use wood, but the effects differed within and among species. In low LWD locations, SWD additions altered assemblage composition, increasing abundances of two native fish: Gadopsis marmoratus and Philypnodon grandiceps. However, SWD additions had little effect on assemblage structure in channels containing high LWD. Higher abundances of juvenile Gadopsis marmoratus (< 123 mm total length) corresponded with added SWD in low LWD locations, while increases in abundances of adult Galaxias olidus (> 42 mm total length) occurred after SWD was added to high LWD locations. Abundances of adult Philypnodon grandiceps (> 50 mm total length) increased in response to additions of SWD in both high and low LWD locations, which indicated that the presence of SWD was more important than background amounts of LWD. Wood size-diversity is important for small native fish and it’s use should be considered further in future river restoration programs. Reasons for the response of native fish to SWD are unclear, but the reaction of mulitple species and sizes suggests different mechanisms were involved. Movement is recognised as an important driver of response to restoration, but other processes such as local reproduction and recruitment are seldom investigated. Thus, an experiment was used to investigate the use of rehabilitated reaches for reproduction, particularly the use of different channel types, substrate types and substrate complexity for oviposition. Only spawning of the native Philypnodon grandiceps was regularly detected, however the greatest number of spawning events was recorded from the pool edges in unmodified and rehabilitated reaches, respectively. The deeper restored runs also contained substantially more spawning events than unmodified, shallow runs. Added SWD was also used by P. grandiceps for oviposition. Acts to restore sediment-disturbed rivers by reconstructing channels are thought to benefit native fish. Findings from this study support the use of channel modification, particularly sediment extraction and woody debris additions to assist native fish inhabiting sediment-disturbed channels. Results also indicated that detecting positive influences of restoration is difficult when other disturbances vii affect the conditions under which resources are used and this may lead to prematurely negative judgements of restoration performance. Improvements in river restoration practices require new knowledge gained from monitoring the impact of management techniques designed to restore damaged ecosystems. This thesis has shown how habitat changes can lead to variable fish responses within short time frames, and that habitat restoration still requires further development, particularly for sand-slugged rivers. viii Table Of Contents Access to Thesis - A ................................................................................................... i Candidate Declaration .............................................................................................. ii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................
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