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Longer duration flooding reduces the growth and sexual reproductive efforts of a keystone wetland tree species

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Abstract

Wetland forests are dependent on flooding; however, general relationships between flooding and tree responses have been elusive, partly due to often coarse characterisations of flooding. In a novel approach, we used individual tree-scale water level data to assess the effect of flooding duration on a keystone wetland tree species. We surveyed 140 Eucalyptus camphora (Mountain Swamp Gum) trees across a swamp forest in both 2012 and 2019. We used TUFLOW to model daily water levels for the period from 2009 to 2019 and determined the flooding history for each surveyed tree. We then assessed the effect of flooding duration and tree size on the survival, growth, condition and extent of sexual reproduction of individual trees. Longer flooding durations limited the basal area growth of larger trees and reduced extent of sexual reproduction. Larger trees had greater basal area growth and signs of sexual reproduction overall. There were no clear effects of flooding duration or tree size on survival or condition. We suggest that for flood-tolerant tree species, prolonged (but not chronic) flooding is likely to result in slower-growing smaller trees potentially without impacts on condition or survival, and that slow tree growth and vegetative regeneration are important strategies for persistence in swamps.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri poeple as the traditional owners of the land on which this study was conducted. We thank: Anna Backstrom and Damien Cook for sharing their data from the 2012 survey; Elise King and Joseph Hall for field assistance; and Raphael Trouvé and two anonymous reviewers for commenting on earlier versions of the manuscript. This research was funded by the Australian Research Council and partners Melbourne Water, Parks Victoria, Zoos Victoria and Greening Australia (LP150100682). The survey work was conducted under a research permit granted by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (Permit No. 10008063).

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  1. School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, University of Melbourne, 500 Yarra Bld, Richmond, 3121, Australia

    Joe Greet, Sarah Fischer & Kathryn Russell

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  1. Joe Greet
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Correspondence to Joe Greet.

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Greet, J., Fischer, S. & Russell, K. Longer duration flooding reduces the growth and sexual reproductive efforts of a keystone wetland tree species. Wetlands Ecol Manage 28, 655–666 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-020-09738-9

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