A comparison between saline and freshwater wetlands on Bloodwood Station, the Paroo, Australia, with special reference to their use by waterbirds

Abstract

Bloodwood Station, 130 km NW of Bourke, NSW, has a diverse array of intermittently flooded wetlands raging from salinas to fresh waters, either clear, opaque or very turbid, and from relatively large (820 ha) to quite small (<1 ha). A study during 1995 followed the filling of 22 wetlands after heavy rain in January to subsequent drying or recession, and looked at the relationship between physicochemical features, aquatic plants, zooplankton, littoral invertebrates, tadpoles, and waterbirds. Wetlands were delineated into two major groups: saline and fresh, with the latter subdivided into five types — clear fresh waters, artificial tanks, vegetated pans, turbid pans, and miscellaneous. The saline lakes developed extensive beds of macrophytes some months after filling which attracted large number of waterbirds. Later, abundant Zooplankton were feed for many Pink-eared Duck. Most of the fresh waters developed large initial populations of phyllopodous crustaceans, Zooplankton and tadpoles, but these waters attracted few waterbirds. Clearer fresh waters later grew macrophytes which attracted many waterbirds, but the turbid claypans remained unattractive to waterbirds during their existence, despite harbouring a host of invertebrates. The vegetated pans, artificial tanks and miscellaneous sites attracted only a few waterbirds, but the tanks along with the persistent clear fresh waters become important as feeding and resting sites as other wetlands dried towards the year end. Few waterbirds bred on these wetlands during 1995. However, many were important as major feeding sites and formed part of a mosaic of intermittent wetlands for Australia's inland waterbirds.