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The Coorong, Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert Ramsar Wetland is ranked as South Australia’s most important wetland and one of Australia’s most important wetland in terms of the numbers of waterbirds that it supports (Kingsford et al., 2012). Numerous studies show that Coorong waterbird numbers have declined over the past 20 years (Kingsford and Porter, 2009; Paton et al. 2019), with current abundances well below historic levels (Paton et al., 2018). Remaining waterbird populations are now particularly vulnerable to current threats and future perturbations at the site. Habitat degradation internationally has resulted in a global decline in migratory bird numbers, and in the Coorong, the main driver of decline is thought to be a reduction in the availability of food resources (Paton et al., 2018), driven by fundamental modifications to hydrology and water quality.
Investigations to date have been instrumental in our understanding of how waterbirds use the Coorong, how this varies in space and time, and what local drivers (food availability, hydrology) influence these patterns (e.g., Paton et al. 2009, Rogers and Paton 2009, Paton et al. 2015). The viability of waterbird populations in the Coorong depends on the availability of high-quality foraging habitat at appropriate times of year. Migratory shorebirds move to the Coorong seasonally between October to November, using the wetland as a feeding ground through summer and into autumn (Paton, 2010).
In addition, the Coorong provides a critical drought refuge for waterbirds across southern Australia (Paton, 2010). However, there is limited capacity to predict how waterbirds may respond to different management scenarios in the Coorong. These scenarios will use integrated knowledge from an ecosystem-based approach to improve habitat quality while considering multiple spatial and temporal variability, and trade-offs among diverse habitat requirements of different key waterbird species. The project approach will follow existing frameworks for wetland management practice for conserving key waterbird habitats (e.g. Ma et al., 2010).
Waterbirds use the Coorong in the context of the broader landscape, and there are likely to be opportunities to restore the waterbird populations that use the Coorong by increasing the available habitat across the broader landscape. This will be particularly important during the current period where ecological restoration within the Coorong is needed. Knowledge of where and when waterbirds move within the Coorong and across the broader landscape and the habitat quality across this landscape is a critical knowledge gap that is limiting the ability to manage the matrix of wetlands across the region to support viable waterbird populations.
The Waterbirds Component is addressing the following questions:
Detailed investigations are focusing on a subset of species that are dependent on the Coorong South Lagoon. The subset was selected on the following criteria:
Based on these criteria, the following list of species were selected for tagging and tracking studies,
To achieve the above, this Component has four interconnected tasks:
