Enzyme Activities in Billabongs of Southeastern Australia

Abstract

Williams (1988) in a recent review noted that most limnologists live and work in the Northern-Hemisphere. The inland waters of Australia are markedly different. from those of Europe or North America (Lake et al., 1985; Williams, 1988), so it is not clear whether concepts developed with Northern-Hemisphere freshwaters are applicable to the freshwaters of Australia. For instance, the rivers of the Australian mainland are often turbid and saline (Hart and McKelvie, 1986; Mackay et al., 1988), and because of the flat terrain and widely variable rainfall, their discharge is generally low, but occasionally is high enough to cause widespread flooding (Walker, 1979). The flat terrain also results in the formation of extensive floodplains on which billabongs are a common and characteristic feature. Billabong is the aboriginal name given to a river branch that forms a backwater or stagnant pool fed mainly during floods, or to an ox-bow lake cutoff from the main flow of the river.