Report for the ACEAS Workshop on:Aquatic Connectivity

“Tracing spatial and temporal scales in aquatic connectivity using novel approaches” (January 2013)

David Crook, Winsor Lowe, Jane Hughes, Brian Fry, et al.

http://www.tern.org.au/Australian-Centre-for-Ecological-Analysis-and-Synthesis-pg17735.html

We look forward to hearing from you and your ‘dream team’….

Our invitees represented a good team of dream time/team experts, representing freshwater, estuarine & marine ecosystems. Combined expertise on genetics, modelling, stable isotopes, and field studies.

The Australian Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (ACEAS) is a virtual and physical Facility within the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) for both disciplinary and inter-disciplinary integration, synthesis and modelling of ecosystem data to aid in the development of evidenced-based environmental management strategies and policy at regional,state and continental scales.

Template formats“Tracing spatial and temporal scales in aquatic connectivity

using novel approaches” (29 - 31 January 2013)at the Moreton Bay Marine Research Station, North Stradbroke Island

Left to right: Chris Harrod (Queen's Uni Belfast & Uni de Antofagasta, Chile), Tim Page (Griffith Uni), Virgilio Hermoso-Lopez (Griffith Uni), David Crook (Charles Darwin Uni), Deb Finn (Oregon State University), Jane Hughes (Griffith Uni), Ivan Nagelkerken (Uni of Adelaide), Raouf Kilada (Uni of New Brunswick (Saint John)), Tibor Eros (Balaton Limnological Institute, Hungary), Brian Fry (Griffith Uni), Bronwyn Gillanders (Uni of Adelaide), Simon Jennings (CEFAS, Uni of East Anglia), Cynthia Riginos (Queensland Uni), Michael Moller Hansen (Aarhus Uni), Frederick Allendorf (Uni of Montana), and Winsor Lowe (University of Montana). Absent: Wade Hadwen (Griffith Uni).

In January 2013, seventeen invited participants met through ACEAS’s targeted workshops program on beautiful North Stradbroke Island off the coast of Brisbane to discuss the importance of connectivity in maintaining population viability in the context of existing and emerging anthropogenic disturbances, and the new tools becoming available to meet these challenges.

As it happened, “connectivity” between the island and mainland became very difficult as ex-cyclone Oswald battered the area and closed down the ferry service for a time. Despite this extreme weather event, the workshop went ahead.

Many of the issues associated with connectivity in ecosystems and landscapes are now being addressed by the discipline of complexity [28]…How do connectivity and complexity interact to influence resilience and sustainability and the natural and emerging Anthropo-world?

Connectivity

Connectivity among different parts of the aquatic landscape and between different sub-populations of a species is often critical for the long-term survival of the species in a region. Connectivity among different subpopulations of a species is important in the medium term for maintaining genetic diversity within populations and for repopulating areas following local extinctions or depletion (Hughes et al., 2009). Connectivity within the landscape may also be very important in the short term, for example in order for an animal to complete its life-cycle, it may need to migrate between river and floodplain or between marine and freshwater (Jardine et al., 2012). Finally, individuals may need to move between parts of the aquatic landscape on a daily basis for foraging or other activities.

In this workshop, we will bring together leaders in a range of these technical approaches to come up with synthetic approaches to address questions of landscape connectivity, and to assess the strengths, weakness, and purviews of the different methods. Furthermore, we wish to include both marine and freshwater scientists, in an attempt to provide a broad overview of techniques and to produce a synthesis of ideas that will be presented in the form of a manuscript for an international journal.

(from the ACEAS wiki site for the Connectivity workshop,http://aquaticspeciesconnectivity.aceastern.wikispaces.net/home)

Connectivity examplefor European stickleback fish

Red, blue, yellow and green dots represent water mills (n = 46), weirs (n = 57), tunnels (n = 14) and sluices (n = 4), respectively

Connectivity Analysis Toolkithttp://www.klamathconservation.org/CAT/v1_3_1/Help/app.htm

Considering connectivity in landscape planning can facilitate: 1) Maintenance of demographic flows - The traditional focus of connectivity, e.g., rescue effect (Brown and Kodric-Brown 1977) of dispersal on populations inhabiting small patches.2) Maintenance of genetic flows - Avoidance of inbreeding depression, long-term maintenance of genetic adaptability, diversification of evolutionary lineages, etc. through dispersal (Young and Clarke 2000)3) Resilience of populations to landscape conversion by agriculture, forestry, and development, by evaluating the adequacy of reserve networks in the light of landscape-level threat processes.4) Resilience of populations to climate change, by designing reserve networks that allow species to track suitable habitat (e.g., altitudinal migration) as it shifts in response to climate change5) Maintenance of nutrient and hydraulic flows in freshwater systems6) Maintenance of characteristic ecosystem processes necessary for population persistence - e.g., patch dynamics of disturbance or resources.

Progress7 folks from the original workshop attended an additional 1-day manuscript planning day, on Tuesday 19 March 2013:

David CrookWinsor LoweJane HughesTim PageBrowyn GillandersCynthia RiginosWade Hadwen

Results:1) Two leaders of the writing team emerged, David Crook, Charles Darwin University and Winsor Lowe (University of Montan).2) Current status: sections of manuscript have been submitted to David Crook. Compilation of sections and drafting of Introduction and Discussion currently underway.

Manuscript plans:a) For the purposes of the workshop paper, connectivity is defined as the movement of individual animals. It does not include discussion of sediment/nutrient fluxes, etc.

b) Aims of paper – i.e., to use a series of examples and case studies to explore the emerging issues relating to connectivity and the methods we may be able to employ to meet these challenges into the future

c) Planned paper considers Connectivity Themes in 5 areas, giving 10 Examples:

1. River flow regulationExample one: Disruption of movement pathwaysExample two: Altered downstream hydrology

2. Habitat alteration and lossExample one: Loss of habitat continuity in stream networks

Example two: Conversion of natural to artificial habitats in coastal ecosystems3. Human assisted spread of organisms

Example one: Interbasin transfers Example two: Population isolation in headwater streams

4. ExploitationExample one: Depletion of spatially structured fisheries Example two: Depletion of unstructured fisheries

5. Climate ChangeExample one: Species range shiftsExample two: Effects of changes to river hydrology