scholarly journals What is needed to restore native fishes in Australia’s Murray–Darling Basin?

2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (11) ◽  
pp. 1464
Author(s):  
John D. Koehn ◽  
Stephen R. Balcombe ◽  
Lee J. Baumgartner ◽  
Christopher M. Bice ◽  
Kate Burndred ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Native Fish ◽  
The Past ◽  
Murray Darling Basin ◽  
Native Fishes ◽  
Conservation Concern ◽  
First Nations People

The Murray–Darling Basin (MDB) is Australia’s food bowl, contributing 40% of agricultural production and supporting a population of over 4 million people. Historically, the MDB supported a unique native fish community with significant cultural, subsistence, recreational, commercial and ecological values. Approximately one-quarter of the MDB’s native species are endemic. Changes to river flows and habitats have led to a >90% decline in native fish populations over the past 150 years, with almost half the species now of conservation concern. Commercial fisheries have collapsed, and important traditional cultural practices of First Nations People have been weakened. The past 20 years have seen significant advances in the scientific understanding of native fish ecology, the effects of human-related activities and the recovery measures needed. The science is well established, and some robust restoration-enabling policies have been initiated to underpin actions. What is now required is the political vision and commitment to support investment to drive long-term recovery. We present a summary of 30 priority activities urgently needed to restore MDB native fishes.

scholarly journals The first unified inventory of non-native fishes of the South Caucasian countries, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia

2021 ◽  
pp. 32
Author(s):  
Tatia Kuljanishvili ◽  
Levan Mumladze ◽  
Bella Japoshvili ◽  
Namig Mustafayev ◽  
Shaig Ibrahimov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Black Sea ◽  
Fish Species ◽  
Caspian Sea ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Native Fish ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
The South ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Native Fishes

The South Caucasus (SC) region is recognized for its high biological diversity and various endemic animal taxa. The area has experienced many fish introductions over the years, but the overall information about non-native fishes in the three SC countries, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia did not exist. Although these three countries belong to the Kura River drainage, Caspian Sea basin (only the western half of Georgia drains into the Black Sea), the legislative framework for each country regarding introduction of non-native fish species and their treatment is different and poorly developed. The goal of the present study was to make an initial inventory of non-native fish species in the three SC countries, and summarize the existing knowledge as a basis for future risk assessment models and formulation of regional management policies. Here, we present a unified list of 27 non-native species recorded in the wild in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. Among these 27 species, eight were translocated from the Black Sea basin to the Caspian Sea basin. Out of these 27 non-native fishes, 15 species have become established (three of them being considered invasive) and six fish species could not survive in the wild.

Freshwater, Fish and the Future: Proceedings of the Global Cross-Sectoral Conference

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Fish Populations ◽  
Native Fish ◽  
Partnership Model ◽  
European Settlement ◽  
Southeastern Australia ◽  
Murray Darling Basin ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Funding Opportunities ◽  
Funding Cuts

<em>Abstract</em> .—The Murray–Darling basin (MDB) in southeastern Australia, covers 1.1 million km<sup>2</sup>, involves six partner jurisdictions with a myriad of different government agencies, and, hence, provides an excellent example of the complexities of multijurisdictional management across a range of social and political tiers. In the MDB, fish and fisheries compete for water with agriculture, which is the traditional water user and is driven by national economics. Murray–Darling basin rivers are now highly regulated and generally in poor health, with native fish populations estimated to be at only about 10% of their pre-European settlement abundances. All native commercial fisheries are now closed, and the only harvest is by a recreational fishery. The six partner jurisdictions developed a Native Fish Strategy (NFS) to rehabilitate native fish populations to 60% of pre-European settlement levels after 50 years of implementation by addressing priority threats through a coordinated, long-term, whole-of-fish-community (all native fishes) approach. As there are a wide range of stakeholders, broad engagement was needed at a broad range of government and community levels. The NFS funding was discontinued after 10 years, not because of its lack of successes or project governance, but due to jurisdictional political changes and funding cuts that resulted in a failure of the collaborative funding structure. The withdrawal of considerable funding by one jurisdiction led to collective decline in monetary contributions and posed a threat to the multijurisdictional structures for both water and natural resource management (NRM) within the MDB. As a consequence, there was a review and reduction in NRM programs and a subsequent reduction in focus to the core business of water delivery. Reflection on the NFS, however, provides some useful insights as to the successes (many) and failures (funding) of this partnership model. Overall, the strategy and its structure was effective, as exhibited by an audit of outputs, outcomes, and networks; by the evident ongoing advocacy by NRM practitioners and the community; and by the continuation of ideas under other funding opportunities. This has provided a powerful legacy for future management of fishes in the MDB.

scholarly journals PEIXES NÃO-NATIVOS EM RIACHOS NO BRASIL: ESTADO DA ARTE, LACUNAS DE CONHECIMENTO E PERSPECTIVAS

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (02) ◽  
pp. 565-587
Author(s):  
Diego Azevedo Zoccal Garcia ◽  
◽  
Fernando Mayer Pelicice ◽  
Marcelo Fulgêncio Guedes de Brito ◽  
Mário Luís Orsi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Native Species ◽  
Propagule Pressure ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
Native Fish ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
Brazilian Legislation ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Native Fishes

Biological invasions are among the main causes of biodiversity loss on planet. Losses are accentuated in streams, which are sensitive to human impacts, since they have specialized fauna and higher degree of endemism. Despite this, studies on invasions by non-native fish in streams are incipient in Brazil. In this review, we present an introduction on the process (i.e., stages) of biological invasion, the environmental factors that influence the establishment and the impacts of non-native species in streams. A methodological step-by-step is also presented as a way to guide the conduct of studies on non-native species in Brazilian streams. In addition, management actions measures are presented to prevent new cases of introductions and suggestions for studies on invasions in streams. Avoiding propagule pressure and environmental education, as well as legal aspects of Brazilian legislation, are management actions that can prevent new introductions. Finally, gaps in knowledge and perspectives are raised as an incentive for interested parties to enter the subject and develop new studies on non-native fishes in Brazilian streams.

scholarly journals Building Longitudinal Datasets From Diverse Historical Data in Australia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet McCalman
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
First Nations ◽  
Social History ◽  
World War ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
The Past ◽  
Nations People ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Poor White ◽  
First Nations People

Australia is rich in population datasets generated to manage convicts, civilians, stock, land and the colonised and displaced First Nations people. It has also preserved all service and pension data from both world wars. Through nominal linkage using volunteers and paid research staff, it has been possible over the past twenty years to build four cradle-to-grave datasets derived from administrative cohorts: poor white babies born in a charity hospital 1858–1900; Aboriginal Victorians from 1855 to 1988; convicts transported to Van Diemen’s Land 1818-1853 and servicemen who embarked for World War I from the State of Victoria. The abundance of digitised historical sources from government archives to historical newspapers enables the practice of demographic prosopography, with a wide range of variables that have yielded new insights into Australia’s population and social history.

Postmodern Curriculum

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen A. Krasny ◽  
Patrick Slattery
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
The Past ◽  
Life Itself ◽  
First Nations People

Postmodernism is a mid-20th-century response to 18th-century Enlightenment rationality. As a movement that developed across a diverse range of disciplines, it is not so much defined by a distinct chronology but rather is predicated on a recognition of the past and has come to represent a way of operating. The late Italian semiotician and writer Umberto Eco argued from an ideological point of view that every period in history has had its postmodernism. Architect and critical theorist Charles Jencks further polemicized postmodernism as a specific form of cultural resistance. In his view, postmodernism operates as a communicative set of values to address the needs of a society, and he cites architecture’s response to the pressing need for mass housing and large-scale urban redevelopment as an example of postmodern innovation. Inspired by postmodernism as a critical movement in the arts, architecture, and philosophy, postmodern curriculum similarly works to reject the universalizing ideals of modernity. It shares Jencks’s polemic stance and would have us reimagine the literal and metaphorical bricks and mortar of schools, colleges, and universities to advance a broader understanding of curriculum with the aim of addressing the need to provide fair and equitable access to education. The postmodern notion that the past has everything to do with the present is central to decolonizing efforts aimed at acknowledgment and reconciliation of the devastating and oppressive ends of curriculum as institutions. For example, government-sponsored residential schools in Canada and the United States stand as a glaring example of the abject failure of modern education to embrace the communicative ideals of postmodernism in its response to First Nations people. Postmodern curriculum is committed to a decentering and challenging agenda aimed at exposing and undermining master narratives of truth, language, knowledge, and power. Dynamic and responsive, postmodern curriculum’s holistic and ecological approach to education works to dissolve the artificial boundary between the outside community and the classroom to celebrate and honor the interconnectedness of knowledge, experience, international and local communities, the natural world, and life itself.

Regionalisation of freshwater fish assemblages in the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia

2017 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 629 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serena H. Hamilton ◽  
Carmel A. Pollino ◽  
Keith F. Walker
Keyword(s):  
Native Species ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Fish Assemblages ◽  
Multivariate Analyses ◽  
Ecological Communities ◽  
Early 19Th Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
Murray Darling Basin ◽  
Audit Data ◽  
Using Data

Regionalisations based on species assemblages are a useful framework for characterising ecological communities and revealing patterns in the environment. In the present study, multivariate analyses are used to discern large-scale patterns in fish assemblages in the Murray–Darling Basin, based on information from the Murray–Darling Basin Authority’s first Sustainable Rivers Audit (SRA), conducted in 2004–2007. The Basin is classified into nine regions with similar historical fish assemblages (i.e. without major human intervention), using data that combine expert opinion, museum collections and historical records. These regions are (1) Darling Basin Plains, (2) Northern Uplands, (3) Murray Basin Plains, (4) Northern Alps, (5) Central East, (6) Avoca Lowland, (7) Southern Slopes, (8) Southern Alps and (9) South-Western Slopes. Associations between assemblages and physical variables (catchment area, elevation, hydrology, precipitation, temperature) are identified and used to reinforce the definitions of regions. Sustainable Rivers Audit data are compared with the historical assemblages, highlighting species whose range and abundance have changed since the early 19th century. Notable changes include declines in native species such as silver perch, river blackfish, mountain galaxias, Macquarie perch, trout cod and freshwater catfish, and the advent of alien species including common carp, eastern gambusia, goldfish, redfin perch, brown trout and rainbow trout. Less significant declines are evident for native carp gudgeons, golden perch, two-spined blackfish, bony herring and flathead gudgeon. Changes are evident even in regions where habitats have been little disturbed in the past 200 years.

scholarly journals Long-term study of reservoir cascade in south-eastern Brazil reveals spatio-temporal gradient in fish assemblages

2018 ◽  
Vol 69 (12) ◽  
pp. 1983 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raquel Coelho Loures ◽  
Paulo Santos Pompeu
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Fish Species ◽  
Fish Assemblage ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Fish Assemblages ◽  
Native Fish ◽  
Fish Diversity ◽  
Fish Assemblage Structure ◽  
Long Term Study

In reservoir cascades, effects on fish assemblages are expected to strengthen over time and transfer from one reservoir to an adjacent one. To test this, fish-assemblage data from 23 years of monitoring in the Araguari reservoir cascade system, upper Paraná River basin, were analysed. The results showed a clear reduction in richness of native and migratory fish species and an increase of non-native species, following reservoir formation. Migratory species richness was higher in reservoirs that presented habitats similar to lotic stretches or tributaries upstream of the impounded area. There was a clear tendency for native species to decline and non-native fish species to increase, in a downstream direction. Fish assemblages became increasingly dissimilar as reservoirs became more distant from each other (longitudinal gradient) and were dominated by small and medium-sized species. Alongside longitudinal position, reservoir area, age and the presence of herbivorous non-native fish were found to be important predictors of variation in fish-assemblage structure. Results from the present study help clarify the potential accumulated impacts of reservoir cascades on fish diversity, which must be carefully considered in river-basin inventories for hydropower plants, and reinforce the importance of long-term monitoring, considering longitudinal and lateral dimensions of the basin.

Complex littoral habitat influences the response of native minnows to stocked trout: evidence from whole-lake comparisons and experimental predator enclosures

2012 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.R. Hanisch ◽  
W.M. Tonn ◽  
C.A. Paszkowski ◽  
G.J. Scrimgeour
Keyword(s):  
Native Species ◽  
Fathead Minnow ◽  
Pimephales Promelas ◽  
Native Fish ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus Mykiss ◽  
Littoral Habitat ◽  
Littoral Zones ◽  
Native Fishes ◽  
Predatory Fishes

Strong negative effects of introduced predatory fishes on native species are frequently reported but may not be universal. Recent research from productive lakes, for example, has documented few serious negative effects. Our objective was to determine how complex littoral habitat mediates the response of adult and young-of-year (YOY) native dace (Chrosomus spp.) and fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas) to the introduction of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in productive lakes in Alberta, Canada. We first quantified inshore–offshore habitat use of native fish in stocked and unstocked lakes with heavily vegetated littoral zones. We then manipulated the presence or absence of trout and densities of macrophytes within enclosures in an unstocked lake and assessed the behavioral response of native fish. Our whole-lake comparisons revealed that adult and YOY fishes occurred in vegetated inshore areas to a greater extent in stocked relative to unstocked lakes. In the enclosure experiment, native fishes did not respond to the introduction of trout at natural macrophyte densities, but dace significantly reduced their occupation of enclosures with reduced macrophytes once trout were added. Our results suggest that complex littoral macrophyte beds provide important refuge habitat for native fishes, which can potentially mitigate negative effects associated with introductions of a piscivorous predator.

scholarly journals Voice of a Leader: If you Truly Believe Children are our Future - the Future is Now!

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wayne Christian
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
State Policies ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Indian Children ◽  
Nations People ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Government ◽  
First Nations People

This paper is based on a speech by Chief Wayne Christian the Co-keynote speaker for the “Gathering and Sharing Wisdom Conference” held in Victoria BC October 6th & th, 2010. He shares the history of his community, their children and how state policies, legislation and laws have affected a way of life for his people. He illustrates through narrative the importance of re-learning our cultural practices. Chief Christian begins his account by quoting a historical approach remembered by many Indigenous people in which the government policy of the day sought to “Kill the Indian in the Child.” Chief Christian noted that First Nations people have resisted this policy, but importantly, he discussed how balance can be restored today for Indian children.

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