- Title
- Palaeoecological evidence for sustained change in a shallow Murray River (Australia) floodplain lake: regime shift or press response?
- Creator
- Kattel, Giri; Gell, Peter; Zawadzki, Atun; Barry, Linda
- Date
- 2017
- Type
- Text; Journal article
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/154662
- Identifier
- vital:11134
- Identifier
-
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-016-2970-9
- Identifier
- ISSN:0018-8158
- Abstract
- Paleolimnological techniques can reveal long-term perturbations and associated stable state transitions of lake ecosystems. However, such transitions are difficult to predict since changes to lake ecosystems can be abrupt or gradual. This study examined whether there were past transitions in the ecological regime of Kings Billabong, a shallow River Murray wetland in southeast Australia. A 94-cm-long core, covering c. 90 years of age, was analysed at 1 cm resolution for subfossil cladocerans, diatoms and other proxies. Prior to river regulation (c. 1930), the littoral to planktonic ratios of cladocerans and diatoms, and bulk sediment delta C-13 values were high, while the period from c. 1930 to c. 1970 experienced considerable changes to the wetland ecosystem. The abrupt nature of changes of planktonic cladocerans and diatoms, particularly after the onset of river regulation (1930s), was triggered by inundation, high rates of sedimentation and shifts in bulk sediment delta N-15 values. However, the transition of a once littoral-dominated community, to one favouring an increasingly turbid, plankton-dominated trophic condition following river regulation was relatively slow and lasted for decades. The progression to a new regime was likely delayed by the partial recovery of submerged plant communities and related internal dynamics.
- Publisher
- Springer International Publishing Switzerland
- Relation
- Hydrobiologia Vol. 787, no. 1 (2017), p. 269-290
- Rights
- Copyright © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
- Rights
- This metadata is freely available under a CCO license
- Subject
- 04 Earth Sciences; 05 Environmental Sciences; 06 Biological Sciences; River Murray; Floodplain wetland; Bulk stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen; Subfossil cladoceran; Subfossil diatom; Regime shifts
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