Debunking paradigms in estuarine fish species richness Adam Waugh - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Debunking paradigms in estuarine fish species richness

Adam Waugh1,2*, Michael Elliott2, Anita Franco2

• 1. Environment Agency, Kingfisher House, Orton Way,

Peterborough, PE2 5ZR

• 2. Institute of Estuarine & Coastal Studies, University of Hull, Hull,

HU6 7RX, UK *Corresponding author: email: adam.waugh@environment- agency.gov.uk

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Introduction

Estuaries are important to us Estuaries are important to fish WFD classifications rely on species richness as key measure Indicators need to be independent

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Present study

Estuaries are complex environments but two paradigms are thought to pervade Species-area relationship Species-energy relationship Not yet tested on quality-controlled estuarine fish datasets

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Present study – area

27 estuaries 2006-2015 144 sites 3,578 45m seine nets 114 species

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Estuaries varied in every way

Level one bullet Level two bullet

• Level three bullet

–Level four bullet »Level five bullet

nSpp nSites nSamples Size (ha) Lat Long Mean site salinity (psu) Mean fluvial flow (m3/s) Min 22 2 41 28 50.21

• 5.04

7.63 0.35 Mean 35.3 5 133 5,818 52.29

• 2.27

21.02 29.58 Max 55 12 289 53,645 55.76 1.54 32.33 139.28 SD 10.1 3 68 12,195 1.50 2.11 7.29 36.63

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10 20 30 40 50 60 50 100 150 200 250 300

Species richness Samples

Adur Alde & Ore Carrick Roads Inner Camel Conwy Dart Dee Esk (E) Exe Foryd Nay Humber Lune Medway Milford Haven Inner Nyfer Orwell Poole Harbour Ribble Severn Southampton Water Stour Taw/Torridge Tees Teifi Thames Tweed Wyre

EstuarySRobs SRmax Medway 23 24.3 Teifi 26 26.4 Esk(E) 22 27.9 Tweed 25 30.3 Tees 27 31.8 Taw/Torridge 32 32.1 Alde & Ore 25 32.4 Lune 25 33 Wyre 29 34.4 Nyfer 25 34.9 Foryd Bay 36 36.6 Stour 36 38.5 Thames 34 40.2 Severn 27 41.1 Orwell 38 41.4 Conwy 37 41.6 Adur 31 43.1 Milford Haven Inner 34 44 Ribble 34 45.1 Carrick Roads Inner 45 45.9 Estuary SRobs SRmax Humber 48 50.4 Exe 42 50.5 Camel 55 60 Dee 52 60.9 Poole Harbour 49 66.9 Southampton Water 41 69 Dart 55 73.9

• 10,000

20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 50 51 52 53 54 55 56

Waterbody Size (ha) Latitude (degrees N)

HDE LDE

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10 20 30 40 50 60 50 100 150 200 250 300

Species richness Samples

Humber Thames

SACFOR Thames Humber Sum 22815 12400 SppCnt 34 47 A 2 4 C 1 1 ES 3 6 F 15 17 MM 12 13 MS 1 6

Acknowledgements

• Prof. Mike Elliott and Dr. Anita Franco at Hull University

Environment Agency IFM And you