In relation to wetland salinisation in the USE
region, salinity recordings conducted in September
and October 2009 by Goodman (2010, unpublished
work) showed the majority of remaining wetlands
in this region have salinity above 5000 mg dm-3
to 120 000 mg dm-3 and only a few wetlands with
salinity below 3000 mg dm-3. The present study
shows that within the salinised wetlands, very low
numbers of zooplankton species emerged and only
salt tolerant taxa persisted. On the other hand, the
wetland that is still fresh was colonised by freshwater
species, but, as salinity increased salt sensitive species
could not tolerate it and disappeared. Hence,
increasing salinity in the USE region may result in
a change in community composition, with the loss
of freshwater species to more salt tolerant species.