study of the salt lakes and salt springs of Eyre Peninsula, South Australia

• Published in: Hydrobiologia 2009-06, Vol.626 (1), p.41-51
• Main Author: Timms, Brian V
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal and plant ecology; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Aquatic ecosystems; Aquatic plants; Biological and medical sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Brackish; Brackish water ecosystems; Crustaceans; Ecology; Freshwater & Marine Ecology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects; Invertebrates; Lakes; Life Sciences; Limnology; Mollusca; Mollusks; Salinity; Salt Lake Research; Salt lakes; Shellfish; Synecology; Wetlands; Zoology
• ISSN: 0018-8158; 1573-5117
• DOI: 10.1007/s10750-009-9736-6

An 18-month-study of 40 saline wetlands, ranging from 6 to 336 g l⁻¹, on the west and southern coasts of Eyre Peninsula yielded 88 species of invertebrates, some aquatic plants and a fish. The invertebrates are taxonomically diverse and include 38 crustaceans, 28 insects, 12 molluscs and significantly an aquatic spider, a nemertean, two polychaetes, two sea anemones, a sponge and a bryzoan. Most were tolerant of wide fluctuations in salinity, there being 51 halobionts, 21 halophils and only 16 salt-tolerant freshwater species. Many invertebrates are restricted to the thalassic springs where marine molluscs dominated. Athalassic wetlands were dominated by crustaceans and were of two basic types--coastal and continental. There is evidence of the former evolving biologically into the later, and for some lakes to be still in transition. There is also evidence of increasing salinity in recent decades and already two lakes exhibit severe secondary salinity. Like other salt lakes in Australia the fauna is regionally distinctive.