Brief floodplain inundation provides growth and survival benefits to a young-of-year fish in an intermittent river threatened by water development.

ABSTRACT: Riverine floodplains are highly productive habitats that often act as nurseries for fish but are threatened by flow regulation. The Fitzroy River in northern Australia is facing development, but uncertainty exists regarding the extent to which floodplain habitats deliver benefits to fish, particularly given the brevity of seasonal floodplain inundation. We investigated the growth rate of young-of-year bony bream (Nematalosa erebi) in main channel and ephemeral floodplain habitats using age derived from otolith daily increments. We also investigated potential mechanisms influencing growth and modelled the consequences of differential growth rate on survival. Our results revealed higher growth occurred exclusively on the floodplain and that zooplankton biomass was the best predictor of growt

SUBMITTER: Pratt OP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10584965 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature