Groundwater seeps as potentially important refugia for freshwater fishes on the Eastern Shores of Lake St Lucia, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Abstract

The freshwater wetlands on the Eastern Shores of Lake St Lucia provide an important habitat for freshwater fishes, including a number of IUCN Red Listed species. The ecology of these wetlands is influenced greatly by water flowing from the large sand aquifers along the lake's eastern shoreline. Of the various aquatic habitats occurring on the Eastern Shores, freshwater seeps along the shoreline of the saline Lake St Lucia are important for maintaining populations of certain freshwater fishes. The persistence of fresh water in these seeps, even during drought conditions, makes them important refugia for fish and other freshwater organisms. Several potentially new distribution records for St Lucia are reported.