Facilitating the restoration of aquatic plant communities in a Ramsar wetland

Abstract

Human activities such as land clearing and intensive land use around water bodies, particularly wetlands, have a detrimental impact on water quality and quantity, aquatic plant communities, and associated wetland fauna. Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert are internationally significant Ramsar wetlands located at the terminus of the Murray River, Australia's longest river system. Agriculture, water regulation, and extraction and droughts have had a detrimental impact on native plant communities in the lakes. We studied the influence of young (<1-3 years) and old (8-11 years) plantings of a native sedge (bulrush), Schoenoplectus tabernaemontani, to facilitate the establishment of aquatic plant communities in comparison with remnant and control sites. We also measured how planting structure (height, stand width, and stem density) changed with age in comparison with remnant sites. Results suggest that as plantings age they get substantially wider and have a greater maximum height, although do not reach similar stand widths by 11 years when compared to remnant areas. However, old plantings do not differ from remnant habitats in relation to aquatic plant species richness, counts of aquatic plants, and community composition. Young plantings have substantially less abundant and diverse plant communities, but are developing on a similar trajectory to old plantings. It is likely that planting sedges along lake shorelines causes a breakwater effect that facilitates the recolonization of wetland plants between the planted area and the water's edge. Management agencies should consider restoring native sedges to increase aquatic biodiversity, and potentially reduce erosion.

Two Simultaneously Occurring Potamogeton Species: Similarities and Differences in Seasonal Changes of Biomechanical Properties

“…The need for improving flow-vegetationsediment interactions is important for engineering (e.g., hydraulic resistance estimation) [2][3][4][5] and ecological (e.g., stream restoration) [6][7][8] applications. Recently there has been an increased interest in management and control methods of invasive aquatic plants that have played an important role in river colonization during recent years [9-10 and literature therein].…”

Using prioritisation tools to strategically restore vegetation communities in fragmented agricultural landscapes

“…The natural vegetation is diverse, ranging from wetland‐associated communities such as reeds beds, semi‐aquatic samphire habitats (Jellinek et al . ) to terrestrial communities including grasslands, shrublands, heathlands, mallee and grassy woodlands (Berkinshaw ). Much of this natural vegetation has been cleared for agricultural purposes such as livestock grazing, cropping and viticulture.…”

Biotische interacties in aquatische ecosystemen

“…Verder kunnen positieve interacties een cascade van het faciliteren en rekruteren van andere soorten bevorderen, een proces dat even belangrijk kan zijn als een trofische cascade. Er zijn voldoende studies gedaan naar kolonisatie na herstel, maar biotische interacties in het bijzonder en interacties die kunnen worden gebruikt in het herstelproces worden slechts in enkele studies besproken (Barrett et al, 2021;Renzi et al, 2019;Jellinek et al, 2016;Halpern et al, 2007)…”