Full Title
Resource use by Paratya australiensis (Decapoda: Atyidae) in lowland riverine- floodplain habitats in North-Eastern Victoria, Australia
Supervisor
Sally Hladyz, Amina Price
Student
Patricia Halpin
Project Team
Adam Richardson
Funding Body
MDFRC summer scholarship
Duration
19 November 2007 to 22 February 2008
Outcomes
Halpin, P. (2008). Energy Transfer in Paratya australiensis (Decapoda: Atyidae) Communities in North-Eastern Victoria, Australia. MDFRC Summer Scholarship at MDFRC Wodonga [ supervisors: Sally Hladyz and Amina Price].
Oral presentation at MDFRC, February 2008.
Summary
The potentially numerous organic matter sources and the nature of linkages within riverine-floodplain food webs are poorly understood. This prevents a thorough understanding of the ecosystem functioning and slows any attempt at managing these freshwater communities.
Shrimp are a dominant component of riverine-floodplain food webs and play an important role in many aquatic ecosystems, influencing food webs and function through alterations in sediment cover, the processing of leaf litter and detritus, grazing and predation, and as prey for fish and waterbirds. However, despite their relative importance, shrimp studies have mainly been confined to their distribution, reproduction and the ecology of adult shrimp, little if any studies have focussed on the productivity of shrimp.
This study will examine the diets of freshwater shrimp in both the river channel and adjacent billabongs of a lowland Australian stream. Paratya australiensis, a common species of lowland rivers and standing freshwater bodies, will be collected from different habitats within the Ovens River and billabongs using a sweepnet electro-fisher. The study will investigate two hypotheses;
- that the diet of shrimp in the river channel will be different to that of the shrimp in the wetlands.
- that there will be a shift in diet between different size classes of Paratya australiensis.
These hypotheses will be tested by measuring the carapace length and examining the gut contents of P. australensis to determine their diets in both the river channel and the adjacent billabong habitats.
