pools and waterways are parched, leaving freshwater fish stranded and dead.
Luke Price, an ecologist for the regional landscape body Landscapes Hills and Fleurieu, says “we’re definitely seeing local extinctions of small populations of fish that usually sought refuge in those pools”.
Wattles and eucalypts, particularly messmate stringybarks, have been dying throughout the Adelaide Hills, while along coastal dunes and clifftops, shrubs like coast daisy bush and coast beard-heath are suffering.
Dr Stefan Caddy-Retalic, an ecologist at the University of Adelaide, says many tree species were showing signs of deterioration and stress such as dead limbs, excessive leaf scorching or sprouting new shoots from the base due to the “ratcheting” effects of lower rainfall, higher temperatures and development that encroached on tree roots.
As the city’s climate continued to shift from warm mediterranean to semi-arid due to global heating, a lot of the introduced trees people associated with Adelaide – like jacarandas, plane trees and oaks – and some natives, such as grey box, will continue to struggle, he says, with potentially devastating consequences for the animals that rely on them for food and habitat
To add to the onitial link, another from today
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/apr/16/south-australia-historic-dry-weather-parched-waterways-dead-fish-and-trees-ready-to-give-up