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5.5. Inland Water Ecosystems in Papua: Classification, Biota, and Threats
DAN A. POLHEMUS AND GERALD R. ALLEN
DUE TO ITS LARGE SIZE, broad elevational range, and great topographic complexity, the island of New Guinea supports a diverse array of inland water ecosystems. All of the major aquatic ecosystem types are represented in Papua, ranging from obvious features such as the Mamberamo and Digul rivers and major lakes such as Paniai and Yamur, to thousands of smaller streams and rivers, a variety of other lakes occupying both lowland and upland basins, innumerable small seeps and springs, and vast coastal wetlands. This extensive array of aquatic ecosystems has in turn developed a rich and highly endemic biota.
Aquatic Ecosystem Classification
Aquatic ecosystems are in many ways more amenable to classification than terrestrial ecosystems because they possess discrete boundaries and can be unambiguously defined by the presence of water. Even so, terminology has presented a persistent problem in aquatic ecosystem classification schemes, since different authors have often employed ecological terms such as ‘‘habitat’’ and ‘‘ecosystem’’ in different contexts and then discussed these terms without providing the necessary definitions. As defined by Polhemus et al. (1992), individual aquatic ecosystems consist of a watermass with relatively sharp, delineable boundaries, enclosing resident organisms, and possessing discrete physiochemical features. Commonly encountered examples of such ecosystems include lakes, marshes, streams, and estuaries. Two basic components of such ecosystems are the biota, or totality of living matter, and the environment, which represents the nonliving physiochemical components of the ecosystem, including spatial dimensions. Although the term ‘‘habitat’’ has often been used more or less interchangeably with ‘‘ecosystem,’’ it is more properly applicable in an autecological sense to designate all ecosystem requirements of a resident species, including space. Habitats are thus not spatially exclusive subdivisions of an ecosystem, in contrast to divisions such as zones, strata, and reaches.
The various types of aquatic ecosystems present in Papua may be assigned to major divisions or classes, for example lotic (flowing) versus lentic (standing). Such classes are based on descriptions of both broad-scale environmental features, such as hydrological regime, water depth, salinity, and so on, and characteristic major taxa of the biota (with the fauna being generally more distinctive and useful in this regard than the flora). Within these broad classes, discrete ecosystem types may be defined by criteria that include altitude, topography, water character (e.g., temperature, turbidity), cultural influences (environmental and biological), and the presence of individual genera or species. In general, oxygen content and pH are usually not adequate descriptors at the ecosystem level because in many waters, particularly those of low ionic content and abundant flora, strong photosynthesis and respiration can diurnally change the levels of such characteristics significantly (pH sometimes by more than two units).
Utilizing the system outlined above and further explained in Polhemus et al. (1992), at least 15 types of inland aquatic ecosystems may be recognized in Papua, occurring across a wide range of elevations. These ecosystems may be split into two major divisions: surface and subterranean. The latter ecosystem types are poorly investigated in Papua, and are not dealt with in great detail here. Surface water ecosystems, by contrast, have received considerable attention, and may in turn be divided into two major ecosystem classes, lotic and lentic, within which there are many individual ecosystem types, discussed in greater detail below. See Definitions of Limnological Terms and Units, on the next page, for specific terms employed in discussion of these ecosystem types.
Lotic Ecosystems
Lotic ecosystems may be technically defined as limnetic surface waters flowing unidirectionally down altitudinal gradients, and may be divided into four types (Polhemus et al. 1992): perennial streams, intermittent streams, rheocrenes, and artificial ditches and flumes.
New Guinea lotic ecosystems are distinguished biologically by a flora consisting mainly of mosses, filamentous algae, and epilithic diatoms, a diverse and largely endemic aquatic insect biota including numerous species of Diptera, Trichoptera (Neboiss 1986a,b,c, 1987, 1989, 1994; Wells 1990, 1991), Ephemeroptera (Demoulin 1954; Grant, 1985; Edmunds and Polhemus 1990), Odonata (Lieftinck 1932, 1933, 1935, 1937, 1938, 1949a,b, 1955a,b, 1956a,b, 1957, 1958, 1959a,b, 1960, 1963), Coleoptera (Ochs 1925, 1955, 1960; Brinck 1976, 1981, 1983, 1984; Gentili 1980, 1981, 1989; Balke 1995, 1999, 2001; Balke and Hendrich 1992a,b; Balke et al. 1992, 1997, 2000; Bistrom et al. 1993), and Heteroptera (Andersen 1975; Baehr 1990; Brooks 1951; Hungerford and Matsuda 1958; Kormilev 1971; Lansbury 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1968a,b,c, 1969, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1993, 1996; D. Polhemus 2002; D. Polhemus and J. Polhemus 1985, 1986a,b, 1989a,b, 1997, 1998, 2000a,b,c,d,
