The wetting and drying regime of a terminal flood plain-wetland system: implications for waterbird habitat

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The wetting and drying regime of a terminal flood plain-wetland system: implications for waterbird habitat

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/224835

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Title: The wetting and drying regime of a terminal flood plain-wetland system: implications for waterbird habitat
Author(s): Rayburg, Scott C.; Thoms, Martin
Abstract: Suitable habitat is essential for successful colonial waterbird breeding in ephemeral wetlands located throughout inland Australia. Two important habitat requirements for waterbirds are an inundated area of sufficient depth and of suitable duration for breeding, and a sufficient inundated area of shallow water from which they can feed. We investigated the influence of a variable wetting and drying regime on these habitat requirements, and related them to known waterbird breeding events in the Narran Lakes, Australia. The complexity of the Narran lakes ecosystem, with its different wetland components, makes it an ideal site for the provision of these habitat conditions. As a collective, they provide the essential breeding and feeding habitats for sufficient durations to enable breeding to occur. This spatial complementarity of habitat is fundamental to the importance of the Narran flood plain-wetland complex as a waterbird refuge. Habitat complexity within this system is capitalised on by waterbirds and must be recognised in water management plans.
Publication type: Conference paper
Source: Proceedings of 'Ecohydrology of surface and groundwater dependant systems: concepts, methods and recent developments', Symposium JS.1 at the Joint Convention of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) and the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH), Hyderabad, India, 06-12 September 2009 / Martin Thoms, Kate Heal, Eva Bogh, Antonio Chambel and Vladimir Smakthin (eds.), Vol. 328, pp. 3-12
Publication year: 2009
Keyword(s): Aquatic habitats; Australia; Dryland; Ecosystems; Floods; Habitat complexity; Hydrogeology; Narran Lakes; New South Wales; Reproductive success; Spatial complementarity; Waterbird breeding; Waterfowl; Water flow; Water management; Wetlands
Publisher: International Association of Hydrological Sciences Press
ISBN: 9781901502992, 1901502996, 0144-7815 (series ISSN)
Publisher URL: http://iahs.info/redbooks/328.htm
Peer reviewed