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Geographic variation in mangrove flooding and accessibility for fishes and nektonic crustaceans

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Abstract

Intertidal habitats are only available to most nekton when inundated by tides. We assessed the variability of access to mangrove habitats for aquatic organisms over 3500 km of Australia’s east coast. After determining the elevation of the lower mangrove edge across 19 locations, we used 6 years of historic hourly tide gauge readings to estimate wetland edge flooding frequency, duration, and depth at each location. Although mangrove edges broadly tracked mean sea level along the east coast, deviations in edge elevation corresponded to substantial geographic variation in flooding dynamics. Mangrove edges were flooded from as little as 20% of the time in central Queensland sites, to as much as 90% of the time during some seasons in northern New South Wales. Flooding frequency and depth were also highly variable, with some mangrove edges flooding and draining almost twice as frequently as others. Flooding depth profiles revealed dynamic patterns of flooding of mangrove habitat. The variability in flooding dynamics demonstrates that the availability of mangrove habitat to aquatic organisms varies significantly among locations. This variability in flooding patterns suggests the nature of mangrove use and the functional value of these habitats for fishes and nektonic crustaceans may differ substantially among regions.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Tom Minello and Lawrence Rozas for inspiring this work. This project arose during discussions between RB, MS, TM, and LR, during a visit to NOAA Fisheries by MS funded through an Australian Academy of Sciences Travel Fellowship. Tide gauge data for sites from Gladstone north were provided by Maritime Safety Queensland; for Brisbane by Port of Brisbane Pty Ltd; for all sites in New South Wales (Tweed Heads to Eden), data are owned by the Department of Environment, Climate change and Water, and collected and provided by Manly Hydraulics Laboratory, Department of Services, Technology and Administration, Manly Vale NSW; for Port Welshpool (Corner Inlet) by Gippsland Ports, and for Stony Point (Westernport Bay) by the National Tide Centre. RB is partially supported by a post-doctoral fellowship from the Tropical Landscapes Joint Venture between James Cook University and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.

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  1. Estuary and Coastal Wetland Ecosystem Research Group, TropWATER, College of Marine and Environmental Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia

    Ronald Baker, Marcus Sheaves & Ross Johnston

  2. CSIRO Land and Water, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia

    Ronald Baker

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  1. Ronald Baker
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Correspondence to Ronald Baker.

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Baker, R., Sheaves, M. & Johnston, R. Geographic variation in mangrove flooding and accessibility for fishes and nektonic crustaceans. Hydrobiologia 762, 1–14 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-015-2329-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-015-2329-7

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