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Wetland plants and animals

Wetlands don't have to be big to be important, nor do they have to be recognised under international conventions and agreements. Creeks, farm dams and temporary swamps are all important - at least to the plants and animals that live in them or use them. Temporary wetlands can also support a wide diversity of flora and fauna. That's why wetlands of all sizes and types are important for maintaining biodiversity.

Changes in the water level of a wetland will change the plants and animals it can support. For example, a large flood in the Murray-Darling river system encourages native fish to move onto the floodplain for spawning. Decomposing leaves and branches on the floodplain provide young fish with food and shelter from predators.

Drying up of a wetland will have an impact on plants and animals necessitating adaptation to the changing conditions. This may result in some animals leaving or entering the area. Thus birds will fly to different localities when wetlands dry up.

Conversely, some small lizards may move into a wetland area when it is dry, to occupy the cracks in the dried surface.

Other plants and animals have strategies that allow them to stay put and survive the dry period. For example, some desert frogs can hold water under their skin, burrow into the ground and remain inactive for several years until the wetland fills with water again. Yabbies burrow well enough to survive years of drought. One species of fish in Lake Eyre can tolerate the wide-ranging salinity and oxygen levels that occur as the lake floods, and then dries out.

Some plants and animals survive the dry periods as seeds, spores or eggs which remain inactive - some for hundreds of years - until favourable conditions occur again.

Each square metre of wetland mud and soil typically holds thousands of seeds of local wetland plants - and probably weed species as well!