- Title
- Cladoceran-inferred ecological and hydrological changes of two floodplain wetlands in two large river systems, the Murray (Australia) and Yangtze Rivers (China)
- Creator
- Kattel, Giri; Dong, Xuhui; Yang, Xiangdong
- Date
- 2014
- Type
- Text; Conference paper
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/100560
- Identifier
- vital:10563
- Identifier
- http://library.federation.edu.au/record=b2188243
- Abstract
- The landscapes of two of the world’s large river basins, the Murray and Yangtze Rivers of Australia and China, have been intensively developed for the provision of food and water resources. Long term archives of change, reveal that man-made infrastructures in the river and catchment modifications for agricultural and industrial developments have reduced the resilience of wetlands ecosystem structure and functions in recent decades. The river regulations imposed during the 20th centuries in the Murray and Yangtze Rivers have transformed hydrology and ecology of the river and associated wetlands. High resolution, subfossil cladoceran assemblages retrieved from Kings Billabong and Zhangdu Lake of the Murray and Yangtze Rivers, have strongly responded to human disturbances in the past. Ratios of littoral to planktonic (L:P) assemblages of subfossil cladocerans and the number of ephippial remains in Kings Billabong indicated the shift in hydrology and ecology of Kings Billabong, and ecological stress as a result of changes in naturally occurring dry-wet cycles following river regulation (1927 AD). Similarly, the subfossil cladoceran assemblages and their ephippia in Zhangdu Lake also reflected the impacts of the construction of the Three Gorges Dam (1954) in the Yangtze River on hydrology and ecology of the wetland.
- Publisher
- Federation University Australia
- Relation
- Symposium on Australia-China Wetland Network Research Partnership; Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGLAS) Nanjing, China; 23rd-28th December 2014 p. 42-49
- Rights
- Copyright © 2014 Federation University Australia
- Rights
- Open Access
- Rights
- This metadata is freely available under a CCO license
- Subject
- Subfossil cladocerans; River Murray; Yangtze River; Kings Billabong; Zhangdu Lake; Alternative stable states in ecosystem; Ecological resilience
- Full Text
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