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Murray-Darling Freshwater Research Centre, PO Box 921, Albury, NSW 2640, Australia.
NSW Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources, PO Box U245, Armidale,
NSW 2351, Australia.
C
Co-operative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology, PO Box 921, Albury, NSW 2640, Australia.
D
Corresponding author; email: daryl.nielsen@csiro.au
B
Abstract. Salt is a natural component of the Australian landscape to which a number of biota inhabiting rivers and
wetlands are adapted. Under natural flow conditions periods of low flow have resulted in the concentration of salts
in wetlands and riverine pools. The organisms of these systems survive these salinities by tolerance or avoidance.
Freshwater ecosystems in Australia are now becoming increasingly threatened by salinity because of rising saline
groundwater and modification of the water regime reducing the frequency of high-flow (flushing) events, resulting
in an accumulation of salt. Available data suggest that aquatic biota will be adversely affected as salinity exceeds
1000 mg L1 (1500 EC) but there is limited information on how increasing salinity will affect the various life stages
of the biota. Salinisation can lead to changes in the physical environment that will affect ecosystem processes.
However, we know little about how salinity interacts with the way nutrients and carbon are processed within an
ecosystem. This paper updates the knowledge base on how salinity affects the physical and biotic components of
aquatic ecosystems and explores the needs for information on how structure and function of aquatic ecosystems
change with increasing salinity.
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Introduction
Salt is a natural component of the Australia landscape and
has been deposited from a variety of sources over millions of
years. Salt enters aquatic systems from groundwater,
terrestrial material via the weathering of rocks or from the
atmosphere, transported by wind and rain (Baldwin 1996a;
Williams 1987). The relative contributions of these sources
depend on factors such as distance inland, climate and
geology (Williams 1987).
Under natural flow conditions in many wetlands and
rivers, periods of low flow resulted in the concentration of
salts in wetlands and riverine pools. Evaporation, combined
with intrusions of groundwater often caused natural salinity
levels to be high for periods of time (Close 1990; Williams
1999; Kay et al. 2001) (Fig. 1A). During these periods of low
flow/high salinity, biota that could not readily disperse
managed to survive either with little or no reproduction and
recruitment (Mills and Geddes 1980; Williams and Williams
1991) or as dormant propagules (Williams 1985; Brock et al.
2003). Biota that are unable to tolerate these periods either
perish or disperse to recolonise when more favourable
conditions occur (Williams 1985).
In many river system such as the River Murray, alteration
of flows, through modification of temporal and spatial
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