| Abstract |
Lake Liambezi is a shallow ephemeral floodplain lake situated in north-eastern Namibia. It is fed on an irregular basis by the Upper Zambezi and Kwando rivers, which overflow into the lake during years of extremely high flooding. The lake dried up in 1985 following five years of low floods in the inflowing rivers. It remained largely dry until the early 2000s, whereupon it received several minor floods, but subsequently dried up on each occasion. In 2007 it received a larger flood that sustained the lake up until April 2009, when it received a major flood, filling for the first time since the late 1970s. The lake reached a peak surface area of around 370 km2 during successive floods in 2010 and 2011. It has remained inundated since, despite having not received any significant inflow. The aim of this thesis was to contribute toward the understanding of fish colonisation patterns, and the drivers of community succession following flooding in Lake Liambezi. The study used field estimates of abundance/biomass, otolith-derived age, growth and maturity data, and gut contents and stable isotope data to test the central hypothesis that: the hydrological regime, life-history adaptations and trophic dynamics in Lake Liambezi interact to determine fish colonisation patterns and drive community succession. |
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