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Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Flood effects on estuarine fish are mediated by seascape composition and context
Marine Biology, Vol.171, pp.1-13
2024
Appears in UniSC Supported Open Access Outputs
Abstract
Estuaries are crucial feeding, nursery and resting sites for fish but can also be subject to the impacts of severe flooding. The environmental features of estuaries can mediate how they respond to these impacts. For example, the size, configuration, and context of estuarine habitats across seascapes affects the value of patches for fish, and so fish assemblages at sites with a greater habitat extent or closer to the mouth of an estuary may rebound more quickly from flooding. We investigated how a once in 100-year flood event affected fish assemblages at approximately 600 sites across 13 estuaries and six estuarine habitats (bare sediments, log snags, mangrove forests, rocky structures, saltmarsh and seagrass meadows) in southeast Queensland, Australia, and determined whether flood impacts were mediated by the position of sites within the broader estuarine seascape. Sites were surveyed annually in 2020/2021 (pre-flood) and 2022 (6 months post-flood) using underwater videography. Flooding modified the structure of the fish community and reduced the abundance of fish targeted by local fisheries in all six habitats. Crucially, flood effects on fish were greater at sites near more expansive urbanisation in some ecosystems, but lower at sites nearer to the estuary mouth. Maximising the extent of natural habitats across estuaries can mediate the effects of floods and should be priorities for restoration and management plans seeking to maintain biodiversity and fisheries productivity in the face of increasing climate-related disturbances.
Details
- Title
- Flood effects on estuarine fish are mediated by seascape composition and context
- Authors
- Christopher J. Henderson (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringAndrew D. Olds - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringLucy A. Goodridge Gaines - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringJesse D. Mosman - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringHannah J. Perry - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringHayden P. Borland - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringBen L. Gilby - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Publication details
- Marine Biology, Vol.171, pp.1-13
- Publisher
- Springer
- Date published
- 2024
- DOI
- 10.1007/s00227-024-04459-6
- ISSN
- 1432-1793; 0025-3162
- Copyright note
- This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
- Data Availability
- Data and code used in this study will be made available upon reasonable request to the corresponding author.
- Organisation Unit
- School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991034698102621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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