Does water abstraction from unregulated streams affect aquatic macrophyte assemblages? An evaluation based on comparisons with reference sites

Chessman, Bruce C.; Royal, Meredith J.; Muschal, Monika

doi:10.1002/eco.8

Cited by 7 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 23 publications

(22 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Boulton, 1989). We previously found no evidence of impact of abstraction on assemblages of aquatic and amphibious macrophytes in the same streams (Chessman et al, 2008b), although we tentatively inferred that abstraction might have impacted on fish assemblages in some cases (Chessman et al, 2008a).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

The challenge of monitoring impacts of water abstraction on macroinvertebrate assemblages in unregulated streams

Chessman¹,

Royal

Muschal³

2011

River Research & Apps

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Monitoring of the ecological impacts of water abstraction from unregulated streams in the state of New South Wales (NSW), Australia, is challenging because water is abstracted by thousands of geographically dispersed users who pump intermittently according to temporally varying needs and the limitations imposed by licences and access rules. Detailed, quantitative monitoring methods are too costly for widespread routine application because of the size of the state (801 000 km 2 ) and the large number of streams affected by abstraction. We therefore tested the possibility of detecting abstraction impacts on aquatic macroinvertebrates with rapid biological assessment (RBA) methods similar to those that are routinely used for biological monitoring of Australian rivers. We sampled 85 sites on unregulated streams in north-eastern NSW during a period of prolonged and recurring drought, 54 of which were designated as reference sites with respect to water abstraction because upstream entitlement for abstraction was less than 1% of their mean annual flow (MAF). The remaining, non-reference sites had an average of 4% of MAF licensed for upstream abstraction (range 1-20%). Sweep and kick samples were collected at each site in two seasons, and invertebrates were picked for 30 min per sample and analysed at genus level. We found a small but statistically significant overall difference in macroinvertebrate assemblages between the reference and non-reference sites, but the amount of upstream entitlement did not affect the degree to which assemblages at individual sites deviated from site-specific reference conditions. We attribute the absence of evident impact mainly to the low proportions of streamflow abstracted, but limitations of RBA methods may also be a factor. We recommend a risk-based approach to future monitoring whereby effort is focussed on those streams where a high proportion of flow is abstracted.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

The challenge of monitoring impacts of water abstraction on macroinvertebrate assemblages in unregulated streams

Chessman¹,

Royal

Muschal³

2011

River Research & Apps

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Furthermore, deep water plants may not be able to adjust their morphology quickly during periods of rapid water level change and thus are eliminated from the system (Weisner and Strand, 1996). Nevertheless, Chessman et al (2008) found no evidence that water abstraction from streams has an effect on the abundance of macrophytes, including Phragmites, in southeast Australia.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Nevertheless, Chessman et al . () found no evidence that water abstraction from streams has an effect on the abundance of macrophytes, including Phragmites , in southeast Australia.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Phragmites distribution relative to progressive water level decline in Lake Koronia, Greece

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Lake Koronia is a hypertrophic Ramsar site in northern Greece. Water level dropped progressively from approximately 6 m in the mid‐1980s to 0·8 m in 2001 associated with over extraction of groundwater for agriculture, and the open water area has decreased from 4620 to 2930 ha, respectively. The resulting annual water level loss of 0·25–0·30 m year−1 was accompanied by expansion of Phragmites australis from a littoral fringe to dominance of exposed lake bottom areas from 97 ha in 1977 to 785 ha in 2005. The aim of this work was to apply an ecohydrological approach using remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) to examine the movement of Phragmites relative to the water level retreat and to basin morphometry. Aerial expansion of Phragmites averaged 11–32 ha year−1 during the period of progressive water level decline but increased to 38–116 ha year−1 during a brief period of water level increase (2001–2003) as the plant colonized reflooded portions of the basin. The total area of Phragmites expanded 29% per annum during 1977–2005. Landward and lakeward margins of the Phragmites area followed water level retreat, moving 55 and 129 m, respectively, during the long period of progressive water level decline. Aerial movements of Phragmites in Lake Koronia are some of the highest reported in the literature. Mean water level within the Phragmites bed varied from 0·5 to 2·0 m during the period covered by this study. Very minor changes in basin slope, however, affected plant colonization rates, as evidenced by 200–250 ha/0·5 m water level drop at 0·18% basin slope to 360–1360 ha/0·5 m water level drop at 0·029% slope. The techniques applied to Lake Koronia for reconstructing past lake levels and associated distributions of Phragmites have broad application for understanding the dynamics of Phragmites elsewhere and anticipating periods of rapid plant expansion related to subtle changes in basin morphology. This study is useful for managing Phragmites populations in areas where efforts are being made to re‐establish populations as well as where elimination of invasive populations is sought. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

show abstract

“…We constructed models for individual species of aquatic and riparian plants with data that were collected during an investigation of the ecological impact of water abstraction on numerous rivers across an area of approximately 200,000 km 2 (Chessman et al 2008). Our aims were to see whether we could relate broad-scale distributions to environmental variables, and to determine which of a large suite of climatic and non-climatic variables seem most useful in predicting species occurrences.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Complex environmental gradients predict distributions of river-dependent plants in eastern Australia

Chessman¹,

Royal²

2010

Aquat. Sci.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We used principal components analysis and multiple logistic regression to investigate the relationships between environmental variables and the distributions of 71 species of river-dependent vascular plants in northeastern New South Wales, Australia. Our analysis defined seven main environmental factors, summarised (in order of decreasing frequency of statistically significant association with species distributions) as exposure, salinity, stream size, stone scarcity, nutrient enrichment, grazing pressure and rockiness. The main environmental correlates of the presence or absence of macrophyte species in our study were broadly similar to those reported elsewhere, but the relatively low apparent importance of nutrients and grazing was unexpected. We were not able to fully separate the effects of climate-related and non-climatic environmental variables because variables of both types loaded strongly on some principal components, but we suggest that both types of variables should be included in models that aim to forecast potential shifts in plant distributions under projected climatic change. Vascular plants have been neglected in monitoring programs for Australian rivers and their conservation requires a better understanding of patterns and trends in distribution and abundance.

show abstract

Does water abstraction from unregulated streams affect aquatic macrophyte assemblages? An evaluation based on comparisons with reference sites

Cited by 7 publications

References 23 publications

The challenge of monitoring impacts of water abstraction on macroinvertebrate assemblages in unregulated streams

The challenge of monitoring impacts of water abstraction on macroinvertebrate assemblages in unregulated streams

Phragmites distribution relative to progressive water level decline in Lake Koronia, Greece

Complex environmental gradients predict distributions of river-dependent plants in eastern Australia

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About