Dredging fundamentally reshapes the ecological significance of 3D terrain features for fish in estuarine seascapes
Borland, Hayden P., Gilby, Ben L., Henderson, Christopher J., Connolly, Rod M., Gorissen, Bob, Ortodossi, Nicholas L., Rummell, Ashley J., Pittman, Simon J., Sheaves, Marcus, and Olds, Andrew D. (2022) Dredging fundamentally reshapes the ecological significance of 3D terrain features for fish in estuarine seascapes. Landscape Ecology, 37. pp. 1385-1400.
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Abstract
Context: Landscape modification alters the condition of ecosystems and the structure of terrain, with widespread impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Seafloor dredging impacts a diversity of flora and fauna in many coastal landscapes, and these processes also transform three-dimensional terrain features. The potential ecological significance of these terrain changes in urban seascapes has, however, not been investigated.
Objectives: We examined the effects of terrain variation on fish assemblages in 29 estuaries in eastern Australia, and tested whether dredging changes how fish associate with terrain features.
Methods: We surveyed fish assemblages with baited remote underwater video stations and quantified terrain variation with nine complementary metrics (e.g. depth, aspect, curvature, slope, roughness), extracted from bathymetry maps created with multi-beam sonar.
Results: Fish diversity and abundance were strongly linked to seafloor terrain in both natural and dredged estuaries, and were highest in shallow waters and near features with high curvature. Dredging, however, significantly altered the terrain of dredged estuaries and transformed the significance of terrain features for fish assemblages. Abundance and diversity switched from being correlated with lower roughness and steeper slopes in natural estuaries to being linked to features with higher roughness and gentler slopes in dredged estuaries.
Conclusions: Contrasting fish-terrain relationships highlight previously unrecognised ecological impacts of dredging, but indicate that plasticity in terrain use might be characteristic of assemblages in urban landscapes. Incorporating terrain features into spatial conservation planning might help to improve management outcomes, but we suggest that different approaches would be needed in natural and modified landscapes.
| Item ID: | 72360 |
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| Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
| ISSN: | 1572-9761 |
| Keywords: | Bathymetry, Dredging, Estuarine fish, Landscape modification, Urbanisation, Terrain |
| Copyright Information: | © The Author(s) 2022. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Date Deposited: | 09 Feb 2022 14:21 |
| FoR Codes: | 41 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 4104 Environmental management > 410404 Environmental management @ 100% |
| SEO Codes: | 18 ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT > 1805 Marine systems and management > 180599 Marine systems and management not elsewhere classified @ 100% |
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