Stories of science from the Australian Rivers Institute
"Often during flood events, water from agricultural catchments will erode productive agricultural soils and carry large loads of sediment and nutrients to downstream estuaries and coastal areas. This can threaten the provision of safe drinking water for humans and the ecology of marine ecosystems, as well as sometimes necessitating costly sediment dredging and disposal operations."
Rivers, lakes, and wetlands support extraordinary diversity. Such bodies of water host more species per square kilometre than forests or oceans. Yet they are losing this biodiversity two to three times faster than forests and oceans. Populations of freshwater animals, including river dolphins, sturgeon, beavers, crocodiles, and giant turtles, have already plummeted by 88%.
By Melanie Roberts and Fernanda Adame Article Read Time: 524 words about 3 minutes. The 2019 Great Barrier Reef Outlook Report from the Australian Government Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority identifies the risk of nutrient runoff from catchments for the reef as Very High, the same rating as the 2014 and 2009 reports. --- This [...]
Australian Rivers Institute Director, Stuart Bunn. We welcome you back to another edition of the Australian RiversInstitute (ARI) Magazine. (Link). Over the past few months our staff have been active in strengthening research partnerships and establishing new connections across the globe. The importance of connections, not only with fellow researchers, industry and government but also [...]
By Dr Vanessa Reis In the face of dramatic degradation of the Amazon ecosystems, a new conservation planning framework can help safeguard the floodplain wetlands. Floodplain wetlands are unique ecosystems often highly influenced by seasonal variation in their connection to rivers. They contribute to the Amazons high biodiversity and are used by the local people [...]
Catchment to Coast 