Live Oral Presentation in person as part of Local State based Program AFSS Conference 2020

Treed Swamps of the Paroo, northwestern NSW --- what drives their diversity and communiality? (#58)

Brian V Timms 1
  1. University of NSW, Sydney, NSW, Australia

My earlier work showed the major wetand types of the middle Paroo are salt lakes, freshwater lakes, claypans, riverine and creek waterholes, and freshwater swamps of various types, including lignum and treed swamps. Major ecological drivers proved to be salinity, turbidity and hydroperiod.  Over the years I have studied in some detail salt lakes, claypans and creek pools, but not treed swamps, the second most abundant wetlands locally,  There are six subtypes of these on Bloodwood and Muella Stations: 17 were studied March to August 2020 following record local rainfall.  All have clear fresh temporary waters but differ in geomorphology expressed by their hydroperiods, vegetation and habitat heterogeneity. These factors affect their biodiversity but the species pools in the six subtypes are similar.  So is their phenology, each subtype with the same scheme but terminating at different points according to their hydroperiod. Ordination based on species assembages and their relative coarse abundances suggest a unified communiality separate from those in other Paroo wetlands.