Drought and Aquatic Ecosystems: Effects and Responses

402 Pages·2011·4.64 MB·English

by  P. Sam Lake

Droughts are a major hazard to both natural and human-dominated environments L DROUGHT
and those, especially of long duration and high intensity, can be highly damaging a
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and leave long-lasting effects. This book describes the climatic conditions that e
give rise to droughts, and their various forms and chief attributes. Past droughts and AQUATIC
are described including those that had severe impacts on human societies. As a
disturbance, droughts can be thought of as “ramps” in that they usually build
slowly and take time to become evident. As precipitation is reduced, flows from
E
COSYSTEMS
catchments into aquatic systems decline. As water declines in water bodies,
ecological processes are changed and the biota can be drastically reduced, though
species and populations may survive by using refuges. Recovery from drought varies
in both rates and in degrees of completeness and may be a function of both refuge Effects and Responses
D
availability and connectivity.
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For the first time, this book reviews the available rather scattered literature on O
the impacts of drought on the flora, fauna and ecological processes of aquatic U
ecosystems ranging from small ponds to lakes and from streams to estuaries.
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The effects of drought on the biota of standing waters and flowing waters and of
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temporary waters and perennial systems are described and compared. In addition,
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the ways in which human activity can exacerbate droughts are outlined. In many
parts of the world especially in the mid latitudes, global warming may result in a
increases in the duration and intensity of droughts. n
d

A
Drought and Aquatic Ecosystems is essential reading for freshwater ecologists, water
Q
resource managers and advanced students.
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A
T
Philip “Sam” Lake is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Biological Sciences I
C
and a Fellow of the Australian Centre for Biodiversity at Monash University,

Melbourne, Australia. Much of his research has focused on the effects that both E
natural disturbances (e.g. floods, droughts) and human-generated ones C
(e.g. pollution, catchment land-use change) have on the biota of freshwater systems.
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Recently, he has also been investigating the ecological processes involved in the
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restoration of degraded flowing waters.
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T
E
Cover image: Lake Eppalock in March 2007, a victim of the Millenium Drought. M
Cover by Design Deluxe.
S
P. Sam Lake

Drought and Aquatic Ecosystems:
Effects and Responses

Drought and Aquatic
Ecosystems:
Effects and Responses
P. Sam Lake
Thiseditionfirstpublished2011(cid:1)2011byP.SamLake
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Lake,P.Sam,
DroughtandAquaticEcosystems:EffectsandResponses/P.SamLake.
p.cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-1-4051-8560-8 (cloth)
1. Bioticcommunities. I. Title.
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2011000108
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1 2011
For Marilyn, Katherine and Jessica

Contents
Acknowledgements xiii
1 Introduction: the nature of droughts 1
1.1 Thesocialandeconomicdamageofdrought 3
1.2 Majorcharacteristicsofdrought 6
1.3 Theformationofdroughts 7
1.4 ElNin˜oSouthernOscillation(ENSO)anddrought 9
1.5 Otherimportantoscillationscreatingdrought 15
1.6 DroughtinAustralia 18
2 Types of drought and their assessment 20
2.1 Droughtmonitoringandindices 25
2.2 Meteorologicaldrought 25
2.3 Hydrologicaldrought 28
3 The perturbation of hydrological drought 35
3.1 Refugesanddrought 41
3.2 Traitsandadaptationstodrought 42
3.3 Thenatureofstudiesondroughtinaquaticecosystems 43
4 Droughts of the past: dendrochronology
and lake sediments 46
4.1 Indicatorsofpastdroughts 47
4.1.1 Dendrochronology 48
4.1.2 Indicatorsfromlakes:treestumpsandsediments 49
4.2 Impactsofpastdroughtonlakes 55
4.3 DroughtsoftheHolocene 57
4.3.1 Earlyandmid-Holocenedroughts 57
4.3.2 LateHolocenedroughts 59
viii Contents
5 Water bodies, catchments and the abiotic
effects of drought 68
5.1 Waterbodytypes 68
5.2 Aquaticecosystems,theircatchmentsanddrought 70
5.3 Droughtandeffectsoncatchments 71
5.4 Riparianzonesanddrought 73
5.5 Sequenceofchangesinwaterbodieswithdrying 76
5.6 Changesinwaterqualitywithdroughtinlenticsystems 81
5.7 Droughtinconnectedlakes 85
5.8 Droughtandwaterqualityinflowingwaters 87
5.9 Droughtandbenthicsediments 92
5.10 Thebreakingofdrought–re-wettingandthereturn
offlows 93
5.11 Concludingremarks 97
5.12 Thenextchapters 98
6 Drought and temporary waters 100
6.1 Droughtandthebiotaoftemporarywaters 101
6.1.1 Algae 101
6.1.2 Vascularplants 103
6.2 Faunaoftemporarystandingwatersanddrought 107
6.2.1 Fishoftemporarylenticwaters 107
6.2.2 Invertebrates 109
6.2.3 Invertebratesinregionalstandingwaterbodies
ofdifferinghydroperiods 112
6.3 Insightsfromexperimentalstudiesofdroughtin
temporarywaters 117
6.4 Thebiotaoftemporarystreamsanddrought 120
6.4.1 Dryingindesertstreams 121
6.4.2 Mediterraneanstreams 121
6.4.3 Drylandstreams 127
6.5 Dryingandrecoveryintemporarywetlands
andstreams 130
6.6 Conclusions 132
7 Drought, floodplain rivers and wetland complexes 134
7.1 Droughtandfloodplainsystems 136
7.2 Droughtandthebiotaoffloodplainsystems 137
7.2.1 Vascularplants 137
7.2.2 Phytoplankton 138
7.2.3 Zooplankton 139
7.2.4 Benthos 140