River wood restoration boosted native fish numbers
Reintroducing thousands of large wood pieces into a Murray River reach increased Murray cod and golden perch by drawing immigrants from connected source populations.
Source
Increased population size of fish in a lowland river following restoration of structural habitat
Study at a glance
- Design
- Other — BACI mark–recapture/telemetry comparing wood-restored Murray River reach vs controls
- N
- N=11055 · 7,312 Murray cod and 3,743 golden perch captured 2007–2013; 4,450 large wood pieces restored
- Population
- Murray cod and golden perch in Murray River restoration and control reaches
- Outcome
- Population size and immigration after structural habitat restoration
Structured fields used in claim comparison tables when every cited study has a complete layer.
What they did
Authors restored 4,450 large wood pieces in a Murray River intervention reach (2007–2010) and used a seven-year mark–recapture and telemetry program on Murray cod and golden perch, comparing the restored reach with three control populations in a BACI design.
What they found
Murray cod abundance rose in the restored reach after wood addition while a hydrologically similar isolated control fell 40%. Movement data showed net immigration into the restored reach from nearby source populations rather than local production alone.
The limits
What it doesn't show
The design is unreplicated (one restored reach); it does not prove that wood restoration would work in disconnected rivers or that local recruitment, rather than immigration, rebuilt the population.
Key terms
- Coarse woody habitat
- Large wood (snags) in rivers that provides cover, feeding sites, and hydraulic complexity for fish.
- Resnagging
- Reintroducing wood into a river from which it was historically removed.
- BACI
- Before/after–control/impact design comparing a treated reach with untreated controls over time.
- Murray cod
- Maccullochella peelii, a large native predatory fish of the Murray–Darling Basin.
- Metapopulation
- Set of connected local populations linked by dispersal, so restoration can pull fish from source reaches.
Flashcards
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Common questions
What was restored?
4,450 large pieces of coarse woody habitat in a Murray River reach.
Which fishes were tracked?
Murray cod and golden perch.
Did the restored reach gain fish?
Yes—population size increased after restoration, with net immigration.
What happened in an isolated similar reach?
Murray cod declined about 40% over the same period.
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