Journal article
Flow regulation affects temporal patterns of riverine plant seed dispersal: Potential implications for plant recruitment
J Greet, RD Cousens, JA Webb
Freshwater Biology | WILEY | Published : 2012
DOI: 10.1111/fwb.12028
Abstract
1. Changes to the natural flow regime of a river caused by flow regulation may affect waterborne seed dispersal (hydrochory), and this may be an important mechanism by which regulation affects riverine plant communities. We assessed the effect of altered timing of seasonal flow peaks on hydrochory and considered the potential implications for plant recruitment. 2. We sampled hydrochory within five lowland rivers of temperate Australia, three of which are regulated by large dams. These dams are operated to store winter and spring rains and release water in summer and autumn for agriculture. At three sites on each river, hydrochory was sampled monthly for 12months using passive drift nets. The..
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Funding Acknowledgements
We thank Lloyd James for his generous help with the construction of the drift nets; Nick Osbourne, Vince Symons and Alex Cambell for their kind help and nursery expertise and Dale Tonkinson, David Lockwood, Jenny Bear and Peter May for their help with plant identification. Thanks to Graham Hepworth for his help with statistical analyses involving REML and to Chandra Jayasuriya for help with Figure 1. Thanks also to Ashley MacQueen, William Bovill, Justin Trounson and two anonymous reviewers for their considered comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. Joe Greet was supported by a Melbourne Research Scholarship and eWater Cooperative Research Centre top-up scholarship.