Spatial dissimilarities in plankton structure and function during flood pulses in a semi-arid floodplain wetland system

Floodplain wetlands in semi-arid regions have intricate channel-floodplain networks with highly variable and unpredictable wet and dry phases related to changes in hydrology and geomorphology. We tested the hypothesis that the presence of different hydro-geomorphic habitats in those systems drives s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Hydrobiologia 2015-03, Vol.747 (1), p.19-31
Main Authors: Kobayashi, Tsuyoshi, Ralph, Timothy J, Ryder, Darren S, Hunter, Simon J, Shiel, Russell J, Segers, Hendrik
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
aquatic communities
Arid regions
Arid zones
bacteria
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Ecology
Floodplains
Floods
Freshwater & Marine Ecology
functional diversity
functional response
Geomorphology
Habitats
hydrochemistry
Hydrology
Lagoons
Life Sciences
marshes
Phytoplankton
Plankton
primary productivity
Primary Research Paper
Respiration
Semiarid lands
semiarid zones
Species composition
species diversity
Water chemistry
Wetlands
Zoology
Zooplankton
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Summary:Floodplain wetlands in semi-arid regions have intricate channel-floodplain networks with highly variable and unpredictable wet and dry phases related to changes in hydrology and geomorphology. We tested the hypothesis that the presence of different hydro-geomorphic habitats in those systems drives structural and functional differences in aquatic communities. To test this hypothesis, we examined the densities and species composition (structural variables), and primary productivity and respiration (functional variables) of plankton communities, and water chemistry in three spatially explicit channel, floodout and lagoon habitat types inundated by environmental water releases in the Macquarie Marshes, semi-arid Australia. Significant differences were recorded among the community-level structural and functional variables among the three habitats. Greater densities of phytoplankton, zooplankton and planktonic bacteria were observed in a hydrologically isolated floodplain lagoon. The lagoon habitat also had greater primary productivity of phytoplankton and planktonic respiration compared with the channel and floodout. Our results suggest that water release to meet environmental flow requirements can be an important driver of planktonic diversity and functional responses in semi-arid wetland systems by inundating diverse, hydro-geomorphically distinct habitats.
ISSN:0018-8158
1573-5117
DOI:10.1007/s10750-014-2119-7