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Fish diet composition in floodplain lagoons of an Australian dryland river in relation to an extended dry period following flooding

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Abstract

Floodplain rivers worldwide are threatened by loss of connectivity to their floodplains and hence reduced benefits from floodplain energy subsidies. Dryland rivers with ‘boom and bust’ ecological responses to flooding and extended dry periods may be particularly vulnerable. This paper describes variations in dietary composition of three fish species of contrasting trophic position in dryland floodplain lagoons with variable flood inundation and drying histories. The study species were Ambassis agassizii - a microphagic carnivore, Leiopotherapon unicolor - a carnivore/omnivore, and Nematalosa erebi - an algivore/detritivor. Despite the range of food items recorded in fish guts, each species fed mostly on relatively few food categories and few food items within each category. Most of the spatial (i.e. among lagoons) and temporal dietary variation was associated with different proportional contributions of these food items. Given the absence or low magnitude of flooding during the study period, temporal changes in diets of the three species are probably the result of successional changes in composition of invertebrate prey as the dry season progressed. The focus of each fish species on relatively few food categories and a few reliable food items within each category may be the most profitable foraging strategy when food resources are limiting in progressively drying floodplain lagoons.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Griffith University and the CRC for Freshwater Ecology for financial and logistic support during the course of this research, and the Brazilian Agency for Post-Graduate Education (CAPES) for a post-graduate scholarship to Elvio Medeiros (BEX 1475/99-1). The authors also thank Glenn Wilson (formerly located at the Northern Basin Laboratory, Murray-Darling Freshwater Research Centre, Goondiwindi) for his support during field aspects of this study. Fish were collected under Queensland and New South Wales Fisheries Permit Nos. PRM00234H, PRM03315D and P01/0089, and Griffith University Research Ethics Protocol No. AES/02/01/aec. Elvio Medeiros holds a Brazilian Research Council (CNPq) Research Productivity Grant (312028/2012-1).

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  1. Elvio S. F. Medeiros

    Present address: Departamento de Ciências Biológicas. R. Horácio Trajano, Universidade Estadual da Paraíba, s/n – Cristo., 58070-450, João Pessoa, PB, Brazil

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Australian Rivers Institute and eWater Cooperative Research Centre, Griffith University, Nathan, QLD, 4111, Australia

    Elvio S. F. Medeiros & Angela H. Arthington

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  1. Elvio S. F. Medeiros
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Correspondence to Elvio S. F. Medeiros.

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Medeiros, E.S.F., Arthington, A.H. Fish diet composition in floodplain lagoons of an Australian dryland river in relation to an extended dry period following flooding. Environ Biol Fish 97, 797–812 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-013-0180-0

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