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Waterbird use of artificial wetlands in an Australian urban landscape

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Abstract

With the loss of natural wetlands, artificial wetlands are becoming increasingly important as habitat for waterbirds. We investigated the relationships between waterbirds and various biophysical parameters on artificial wetlands in an Australian urban valley. The densities (birds per hectare) of several species were correlated (mostly positively) with wetland area, and correlations were observed between certain species and other physical and water chemistry variables. Waterbird community structure, based on both abundance (birds per wetland) and density data, was most consistently positively correlated with the relative amount of wetland perimeter that was vegetated, surface area, distance to nearest wetland, public accessibility and shoreline irregularity. We also compared the relative use of the two types of urban wetlands, namely urban lakes and stormwater treatment wetlands, and found for both abundance and density that the number of individuals and species did not vary significantly between wetland types but that significant differences were observed for particular species and feeding guilds, with no species or guild being more abundant or found in greater density on an urban lake than a stormwater treatment wetland. Designing wetlands to provide a diversity of habitat will benefit most species.

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Acknowledgments

William Steele’s initial suggestions for locating the wetlands used in this study and his instigation of the funding by Melbourne Water for the water chemistry analysis are gratefully acknowledged. We also thank Brad Snibson (Ecowise Australia) for his assistance with the water chemistry analyses and Kumar Eliezer (Principal Biologist, Ecowise Australia) for identifying all of the algae to genus level. Anne Michelson and John Ride provided invaluable support during the field work. We thank David Johns for making the Infomap system available and thank Chandra Jayasuriya for assistance with Fig. 1. We thank two anonymous reviewers for comments that improved the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Resource Management and Geography, Melbourne School of Land and Environment, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia

    Christopher G. Murray

  2. Department of Forest and Ecosystem Science, Melbourne School of Land and Environment, The University of Melbourne, 500 Yarra Boulevard, Richmond, VIC, 3121, Australia

    Sabine Kasel

  3. Department of Sustainability and Environment, Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research, P.O. Box 137, Heidelberg, VIC, 3084, Australia

    Richard H. Loyn

  4. Department of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia

    Graham Hepworth

  5. Department of Agriculture and Food Systems, Melbourne School of Land and Environment, The University of Melbourne, Dookie Campus, Dookie College, VIC, 3647, Australia

    Andrew J. Hamilton

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  1. Christopher G. Murray
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Correspondence to Christopher G. Murray.

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Murray, C.G., Kasel, S., Loyn, R.H. et al. Waterbird use of artificial wetlands in an Australian urban landscape. Hydrobiologia 716, 131–146 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-013-1558-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-013-1558-x

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