La Trobe
Fish Theme research report FINAL 26-06-2019.pdf (1.95 MB)

Murray-Darling Basin Environmental Water Knowledge and Research Project: Fish Theme Research Report

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posted on 2023-11-02, 00:34 authored by Amina PriceAmina Price, Stephen Balcombe, Paul Humphries, Alison KingAlison King, Brenton Zampatti
The MDB EWKR Fish Theme focussed on fish recruitment and sought to improve our understanding of the key drivers, functional processes and limitations of successful recruitment of native fish. This would lead to an improved capacity to predict fish recruitment outcomes in response to different environmental water parameters. In summary, our research demonstrates that both fish population processes, and the key drivers that support recruitment operate at multiple spatial scales, from the patch to the basin scale. Food production areas coupled with appropriate temperature regimes, and the ability for larval dispersal or retention at patch to segment scales, were found to be important drivers of recruitment success. Hydraulic diversity is integral to providing appropriate conditions for food production and dispersal/retention of early-life stages. Connectivity at small to large scales is also critical in enabling access to appropriate habits and dispersal to maintain populations at catchment to basin scales. Our research also demonstrated that under drought
conditions, additional factors such as abundance and condition of adults, and maintenance of refuge areas are likely to be playing a critical role in determining recruitment success.

Funding

Department of Environment and Energy, Commonwealth Environmental Water Office

History

Publication Date

2019-06-01

Commissioning Body

Department of the Environment and Energy, Commonwealth Environmental Water Office

Type of report

  • Public sector research report

Publisher

Centre for Freshwater Ecosystems, La Trobe University

Place of publication

Wodonga, Victoria

Report Number

223

Pagination

46 pages

Rights Statement

The Author reserves all moral rights over the deposited text and must be credited if any re-use occurs. Documents deposited in OPAL are the Open Access versions of outputs published elsewhere. Changes resulting from the publishing process may therefore not be reflected in this document. The final published version may be obtained via the publisher’s DOI. Please note that additional copyright and access restrictions may apply to the published version.