A bust but no boom: Responses of floodplain bird assemblages during and after prolonged drought (original) (raw)

Responses of waterbirds to flooding in an arid region of Australia and implications for conservation

Biological Conservation, 2002

Floods are a frequent but irregular feature of Australia's dryland river catchments. We investigated changes in abundances of waterbirds in north western New South Wales with changes in wetland distribution at local, catchment and broad scales. The abundance of most functional groups of waterbirds changed in response to broad scale changes in wetland distribution, while local abundance remained highly variable. Patterns of abundance varied among functional groups of waterbirds, with some immediately responding to changes in wetland distribution and area flooded, and others apparently responding to sequences of wetting and drying. In Australia, the main conservation issue for waterbirds is water and its use across the landscape and not the spatial arrangement of any fixed array of reserves established to protect them.

Surviving drought: a framework for understanding animal responses to small rain events in the arid zone

Ecology, 2019

Large rain events drive dramatic resource pulses and the complex pulse‐reserve dynamics of arid ecosystems change between high‐rain years and drought. However, arid‐zone animal responses to short‐term changes in climate are unknown, particularly smaller rain events that briefly interrupt longer‐term drought. Using arthropods as model animals, we determined the effects of a small rain event on arthropod abundance in western New South Wales, Australia during a longer‐term shift toward drought. Arthropod abundance decreased over 2 yr, but captures of 10 out of 15 ordinal taxa increased dramatically after the small rain event (<40 mm). The magnitude of increases ranged from 10.4 million% (collembolans) to 81% (spiders). After 3 months, most taxa returned to prerain abundance. However, small soil‐dwelling beetles, mites, spiders, and collembolans retained high abundances despite the onset of winter temperatures and lack of subsequent rain. As predicted by pulse‐reserve models, most ar...