Western Mount Lofty Ranges Fish Condition Report 2012-13 Incorporating the Barossa Valley Prescribed Water Resource Area Fish Community Study, the Verification of Water Allocation Science Project (VWASP) and the Western Mount Lofty Ranges Fish Community Monitoring Project David W. Schmarr, Rupert Mathwin and David L.M. Cheshire SARDI Publication No. F2014/000113-1 SARDI Research Report Series No. 780 SARDI Aquatics Sciences PO Box 120 Henley Beach SA 5022 June 2014 Western Mount Lofty Ranges Fish Condition Report 2012-13 Incorporating the Barossa Valley Prescribed Water Resource Area Fish Community Study, the Verification of Water Allocation Science Project (VWASP) and the Western Mount Lofty Ranges Fish Community Monitoring Project David W. Schmarr, Rupert Mathwin and David L. M. Cheshire SARDI Publication No. F2014/000113-1 SARDI Research Report Series No. 780 June 2014 I This publication may be cited as: Schmarr, D.W., Mathwin, R. and Cheshire D. L. M. (2014). Western Mount Lofty Ranges Fish Condition Report 2012-13. Incorporating the Barossa Valley Prescribed Water Resource Area Fish Community Study, the Verification of Water Allocation Science Project (VWASP) and the Western Mount Lofty Ranges Fish Community Monitoring. South Australian Research and Development Institute (Aquatic Sciences), Adelaide. SARDI Publication No. F2014/000113-1. SARDI Research Report Series No. 780. 84pp. South Australian Research and Development Institute SARDI Aquatic Sciences 2 Hamra Avenue West Beach SA 5024 Telephone: (08) 8207 5400 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. 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Printed in Adelaide: June 2014 SARDI Publication No. F2014/000113-1 SARDI Research Report Series No. 780 Author(s): David S. Schmarr, Rupert Mathwin and David L. M. Cheshire Reviewer(s): Kristian Peters (AMLRNRMB), George Giatas (SARDI) and Jason VanLaarhoven (DEWNR). Approved by: Assoc Prof Qifeng Ye, Science Leader – Inland Waters & Catchment Ecology Signed: Date: 6 June 2014 Distribution: DEWNR, SAASC Library, University of Adelaide Library, Parliamentary Library, State Library and National Library Circulation: Public Domain II TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................... 1 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 2 1.1. Background.................................................................................................................. 2 1.2. Objectives .................................................................................................................... 5 2. METHODS .......................................................................................................................... 6 2.1. Study site selection and reach classification ................................................................ 6 2.2. Timing of sampling ....................................................................................................... 7 2.3. Habitat assessment and water quality measurement ................................................... 7 2.4. Standard fish sampling methodology ........................................................................... 8 2.5. Data analysis ..............................................................................................................10 3. RESULTS ..........................................................................................................................13 3.1. General results ...........................................................................................................13 3.2. Fish results within the Barossa Prescribed Water Resource Area ...............................13 3.3. Multivariate analysis of the Barossa Prescribed Water Resource Area .......................25 3.4. VWASP - Results by River ..........................................................................................28 3.5. WMLR Fish community monitoring – Results by river .................................................34 WMLR Fish community monitoring .............................................................................40 3.6. multivariate analysis results ........................................................................................40 4. DISCUSSION ....................................................................................................................45 4.1. Barossa species .........................................................................................................45 4.2. Western blue spot goby (Pseudogobius olorum) .........................................................46 4.3. Redfin perch (Perca fluviatilis) ....................................................................................47 4.4. Reach recommendations for the Barossa Valley Prescribed Water Resource Area ...50 4.5. Summary of Barossa Valley PWRA recommendations ...............................................53 4.6. WMLR fish dynamics ..................................................................................................54 4.7. WMLR discussion of multivariate grouping .................................................................55 4.8. Fish community discussion and recommendations for catchments the WMLR ............58 4.9. Summary of WMLR recommendations ........................................................................68 4.10. Site or river specific recommendations: .......................................................................68 5. REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................70 6. APPENDIX A .....................................................................................................................74 7. APPENDIX B .....................................................................................................................78 8. APPENDIX C .....................................................................................................................81 III LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Sites surveyed throughout 2012/13 for the WMLR fish condition surveys. Projects colour coded in legend. .............................................................................................................. 7 Figure 2. Water quality monitoring (left) and removal of a pacific black duck (Anas superciliosa) from a fyke net (right). This duck entered the net overnight and was saved from drowning by the air pocket created between the two polystyrene buoys. ............................................................. 8 Figure 3. Demonstration of electrofishing operation. .................................................................. 9 Figure 4. Dendrogram displaying cluster analysis of the normalised CPUE data for the Barossa PWRA. Group affiliation (described in text) defined by 50% similarity indicated on dendrogram by solid black line. .....................................................................................................................26 Figure 5. Plot of distance based linear model for the Barossa PWRA displaying correlation of species group clusters with environmental variables. ................................................................27 Figure 6. Severe erosion immediately downstream of the Winton Rd site [WMLR1405]. ...........30 Figure 7. Plot of distance based linear model for the WMLR region surveys displaying the correlation of geographical grouping with fish species CPUE. The species that correlate significantly with region were gambusia (GAM HOL), flathead gudgeon (PHI GRA), mountain galaxias (GAL OLI), climbing galaxias (GAL BRE), brown trout (SAL TRU) and redfin perch (PER FLU). ...............................................................................................................................41 Figure 8. Dendrogram displaying cluster analysis of the normalised CPUE data for the entire WMLR region survey. Group affiliation described in text. ..........................................................42 Figure 9. Plot of distance based linear model for the entire WMLR region survey displaying correlation between geographic region, annual rainfall and the biological condition gradient (BCG) and fish health index (FHI) site scores. ..........................................................................43