Adelaide University researchers look at ways to combat algae threat to waterbirds in southern Coorong
Algae blankets in the Coorong are among threats to the Murray Darling basin’s most important refuge for waterbirds, such as the fairy tern.
Satellite tracking has helped South Australian researchers map floating algae that suffocates vital food plants in the state’s world-renowned Coorong bird refuge. Filamentous algae decimate aquatic plants in the southern Coorong by blocking seeding and germination.
The aquatic plants include Ruppia tuberosa, or widgeon grass, one of the most important food sources for birds in the internationally renowned RAMSAR-listed refuge at the southern end of the Murray Darling Basin.
A team at Adelaide University, led by Professor Michelle Waycott, also chief botanist at the State Herbarium, in 2019 looked at ways to track and control the algae that form a blanket on water surface. This interferes with the ruppia that grown in underwater sediment and send up spikes for its flowers to be pollinated on the surface. The algae blanket also can prevent water birds from diving for food.
The Adelaide University team examined satellite imagery from the Coorong back to the 1980s to track the rates of algae growth. From that, it established a combat method to be trialled in spring/summer 2020.
Research already showed falling numbers of waterbirds, particularly fairy tern and migratory shorebirds, in the Coorong, the Murray Darling basin’s most important refuge for waterbirds. The two and a half year algae project is being funded through South Australia’s Goyder Institute for Water Research as a part of the state department for environment and water’s Healthy Coorong, Healthy Basin Program.
Other projects within the plan include looking at how algal growth can be controlled under specific temperature, salinity and nutrients. Researchers are also looking at how environmental problems are linked to the millennial drought that severely affected the southern Coorong’s wellbeing around 2010.
