Fish and flows: Abiotic drivers influence the recruitment response of a freshwater fish community throughout a regulated lotic system of the Murray‐Darling Basin, Australia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerom R. Stocks ◽  
Sam Davis ◽  
Marti J. Anderson ◽  
Martin W. Asmus ◽  
Katherine J.M. Cheshire ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Freshwater Fish ◽  
Fish Community ◽  
Murray Darling Basin ◽  
Lotic System

A Study on the Characteristics of Freshwater Fish Community in the Small Streams in Geogeumdo Island, Korea

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 241-248
Author(s):  
Su-Hyang Yoo ◽  
Yun Jeong Cho ◽  
Cheol Woo Park ◽  
Jong Wook Kim ◽  
Jae Goo Kim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Freshwater Fish ◽  
Fish Community ◽  
Small Streams

Toxicity and chronic effects of deltamethrin exposure on zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a reference model for freshwater fish community

2019 ◽  
Vol 171 ◽  
pp. 854-862 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan-Adrian Strungaru ◽  
Gabriel Plavan ◽  
Alin Ciobica ◽  
Mircea Nicoara ◽  
Madalina Andreea Robea ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Freshwater Fish ◽  
Danio Rerio ◽  
Fish Community ◽  
Reference Model ◽  
Chronic Effects

Conservation of an inauspicious endangered freshwater fish, Murray hardyhead (Craterocephalus fluviatilis), during drought and competing water demands in the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia

2013 ◽  
Vol 64 (9) ◽  
pp. 792 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iain M. Ellis ◽  
Daniel Stoessel ◽  
Michael P. Hammer ◽  
Scotte D. Wedderburn ◽  
Lara Suitor ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Freshwater Fish ◽  
Environmental Water ◽  
River Regulation ◽  
Isolated Populations ◽  
Conservation Units ◽  
European Settlement ◽  
Water Demands ◽  
Murray Darling Basin ◽  
Conservation Concern ◽  
Australian Freshwater

Approximately 40% of Australian freshwater fish species are of conservation concern, largely because of the impacts of river regulation, habitat fragmentation and alien fishes. Murray hardyhead is a threatened fish endemic to the southern Murray–Darling Basin in Australia, which has declined significantly in range and abundance since European settlement. Conservation of the species has relied largely on environmental watering of off-channel wetlands where isolated populations persist. This became problematic during recent drought (1997–2010) because of competing demands for limited water, and resentment towards environmental watering programs from communities that themselves were subject to reduced water entitlements. In response, emergency conservation measures prioritised the delivery of environmental water to minimise applied volumes. Captive maintenance programs were established for fish rescued from four genetically distinct conservation units, with varying levels of breeding success. Several translocations of wild and captive-bred fish to surrogate refuge sites were also conducted. Future recovery of the species should secure existing natural and stocked populations and translocate fish to additional appropriate sites to spread risk and reinstate natural pathways for dispersal. The approach to the conservation of Murray hardyhead during extreme environmental conditions provides insights to inform the management of fishes in other drought-prone regions of the world.

scholarly journals A review of on-ground recovery actions for threatened freshwater fish in Australia

2013 ◽  
Vol 64 (9) ◽  
pp. 775 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Lintermans
Keyword(s):  
Freshwater Fish ◽  
Threatened Species ◽  
Management Interventions ◽  
Murray Darling Basin ◽  
Social Challenge ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
Prolonged Drought ◽  
Conservation Concern ◽  
Habitat Enhancement ◽  
General Conservation

Freshwater fish are a highly threatened group and recovery of these threatened species is an increasingly difficult ecological and social challenge. There are many different on-ground recovery actions available to managers, but no synthesis of what, how or why these recovery actions have been deployed. The present paper reviews 428 reported on-ground recovery actions from a survey of practitioners of threatened freshwater-fish recovery in Australia. Recovery actions were grouped into 12 categories, with the most commonly utilised recovery categories being harvest control, translocation, habitat enhancement and stock enhancement. Major drivers of recovery actions were general conservation concern, recovery plans and emergency responses. The number of recovery actions grew significantly in the decade beginning 2000 as the impacts of prolonged drought in south-eastern Australia intensified. In all, 58% of recovery actions occurred in the Murray–Darling Basin, although this region holds only 27% of the 74 listed threatened freshwater fish in Australia. Few or no recovery actions were reported for many species, and few actions occurred in northern or western parts of the country. More than 80% of recovery actions reportedly had some form of monitoring. The diversity of management interventions is reviewed, and patterns and issues are identified to guide future recovery efforts.

scholarly journals Wilhelm Blandowski’s contribution to ichthyology of the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia

2009 ◽  
Vol 121 (1) ◽  
pp. 90
Author(s):  
Paul Humphries
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Freshwater Fish ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Habitat Size ◽  
Scientific Establishment ◽  
Murray Darling Basin ◽  
Written Descriptions

Wilhelm Blandowski is best known for the scandal that surrounded his attempts to name a number of new species of freshwater fish after prominent members of the Victorian scientific establishment. Although this 19th Century anecdote is diverting, it belies, I believe, the significant contribution that the first paid Victorian government zoologist made to the ichthyology of the Murray-Darling Basin. Although his claim to new species was exaggerated, his collections, assisted by Gerard Krefft were the most diverse to that date. There is no doubt – because Blandowski tells us as much – that the expedition’s success in collecting so many species, as well as information on distribution, habitat, size and diet, can be attributed to the knowledge of the local Aboriginal people, the Nyeri Nyeri. That Blandowski realised that this knowledge existed and acknowledged it, is unusual for the time. The information provided, although broadly consistent with what we know of the species’ current habits, is scanty and there is some uncertainty as to the location where most of the species were collected. Interpretations based on illustrations, written descriptions and extant specimens suggest that many species that were collected in 1856/57 no longer occur in that region of the Murray-Darling Basin. Blandowski’s collections also hint at the possibility that the distribution of the spotted galaxias, Galaxias truttaceus Valenciennes 1846, normally considered coastal, may have formerly extended much further up into freshwater.

Phylogeography of a threatened freshwater fish (Mogurnda adspersa) in eastern Australia: conservation implications

2008 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leanne K. Faulks ◽  
Dean M. Gilligan ◽  
Luciano B. Beheregaray
Keyword(s):  
Freshwater Fish ◽  
Integrative Approach ◽  
Restricted Gene Flow ◽  
Evolutionary Diversification ◽  
Conservation Implications ◽  
Low Genetic Diversity ◽  
Murray Darling Basin ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
High Conservation ◽  
Australian Freshwater

Phylogeography is a field that has the potential to provide an integrative approach to the conservation of threatened species. The southern purple spotted gudgeon, Mogurnda adspersa, is a small freshwater fish that was once common and widely distributed throughout south-eastern Australia. However, habitat alteration has dramatically reduced the size and the range of Murray–Darling Basin populations, which are now classified as endangered. Here patterns of genetic structure and evolutionary history of M. adspersa in southern Queensland and the Murray–Darling Basin are elucidated using three regions of the mitochondrial DNA, the ATPase 6 and 8 and the control region. Murray–Darling Basin populations are characterised by lineages with highly localised endemism, very low genetic diversity and restricted gene flow. Phylogenetic reconstructions show that Murray–Darling Basin populations comprise a monophyletic clade that possibly originated by range expansion from the coast around 1.6 million years ago. It is proposed that the divergent Murray–Darling Basin clade is of high conservation priority and requires separate management. The present study further exemplifies the role of drainage rearrangement in driving evolutionary diversification in Australian freshwater fishes, an historical process with profound implications for conservation management.

scholarly journals Alien pathogens and parasites impacting native freshwater fish of southern Australia: a scientific and historical review

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Kaminskas
Keyword(s):  
Freshwater Fish ◽  
Fish Species ◽  
Fish Populations ◽  
Native Fish ◽  
Freshwater Species ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Murray Darling Basin ◽  
General Decline ◽  
Alien Fish ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACT Native freshwater fish of Australia have a diverse but largely undescribed endemic pathogen and parasite fauna. However, due to long-shared evolutionary histories and virulence/transmissibility trade-offs, effects of these endemic pathogens and parasites appear to be subtle: significant impacts are rarely observed and epizootics have not been recorded. In contrast, a number of alien pathogens and parasites are now established across southern Australia, causing manifestly harmful effects to native fish species and known or suspected epizootics in native fish populations. Undetected and/or undescribed alien viral pathogens are also suspected of being present. Alien pathogens and parasites were introduced to Australia with imports of live alien fish or their fertilised eggs. A review of the scientific and historical evidence indicates that they have had, and continue to have, greater impacts on native fish species than previously realised—especially for freshwater species. This review also documents a previously unknown, Murray-Darling-Basin-wide epizootic of Murray cod Maccullochella peelii in 1929–30, which may have contributed to strong declines in the related eastern freshwater cod Maccullochella ikei. A serious Chilodonella epizootic of M. peelii in 1982 is also examined. In addition, a possible role for alien viruses of the family Iridoviridae (Ranavirus and Megalocytivirus) in the general decline of the critically endangered silver perch Bidyanus bidyanus, and the rapid collapse of two specific native fish populations—upper Murrumbidgee River B. bidyanus and Shoalhaven River Macquarie perch Macquaria australasica—is suggested. It is argued that the severity of the impact of the virulent alien oomycete Saprolegnia parasitica, both historical and present day, has been underestimated. Finally, action is recommended against emerging new pathogen and parasite threats, and the extreme risk current alien fish importations pose in introducing them. These will further threaten already stressed native fish populations in southern Australia, particularly across the Murray-Darling Basin.

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