Evaluating a daily water balance model (AWRA-L) to represent streamflow intermittency

Evaluating a daily water balance model (AWRA-L) to represent streamflow intermittency

Author's Dr Songyan Yu and Associate Professor Mark Kennard, Read Time: 622 words, about 3 minutes. There is a growing interest globally in the spatial distribution and temporal dynamics of intermittently flowing streams and rivers. Previous studies have predominantly relied on the use of gauged streamflow data to make inferences about the distribution of intermittent streams. [...]

Climate Change strikes again: Warming rivers are reducing fish recruitment

Climate Change strikes again: Warming rivers are reducing fish recruitment

There is an urgent need to understand what factors contribute to successful breeding and juvenile survival for Australia’s freshwater fishes, especially as many freshwater fish species are affected by events like those that led to the recent fish kills in the Murray-Darling Basin.

Climate change threat to fish diversity in Murray-Darling Basin

Climate change threat to fish diversity in Murray-Darling Basin

By Mark Kennard Read Time: Words 518 about 3 mins Native freshwater fish diversity in the Murray-Darling Basin could be under serious threat from climate change in coming decades. This potential loss of biodiversity could result in a further decline in the health of the Basin. Murray Darling Basin. Photo: iStock Freshwater fishes are highly [...]

The ecological importance of groundwater along the Fitzroy River

The ecological importance of groundwater along the Fitzroy River

By Ryan Burrows Article Read Time: 623 words about 4 minutes. Groundwater upwelling to rivers not only sustains surface flow but also delivers nutrients and creates favourable conditions for algae growth, importantly algae is a critical food source for aquatic animals. The Fitzroy River is located in the West Kimberley region of Western Australia. Geikie [...]

Assessing Deltas in Canada: We all live downstream

Assessing Deltas in Canada: We all live downstream

By Tim Jardine NOTE: This is a guest article written by Dr Tim Jardine from the School of Environment and Sustainability and Toxicology Centre at the University of Saskatchewan. So I’ve heard it said. And there’s some truth to it. Unless you’re camped on the top of a mountain peak, you’re going to be downstream of [...]

Prey availability and flow conditions drive changes in barramundi abundance

Prey availability and flow conditions drive changes in barramundi abundance

By Mischa Turschwell Predator-prey interactions between fishes are important ecological processes that help maintain healthy populations and ecosystems. But often we don’t know if predators control prey numbers (top-down control) or if the number of prey available controls predator numbers (bottom-up control). We also don’t know how these interactions might change if environmental conditions like [...]

The Amazon is under threat, but our new study gives hope to improving conservation planning and management

The Amazon is under threat, but our new study gives hope to improving conservation planning and management

Author: Dr Vanessa  Reis, Wetland ecosystems are important hotspots of biodiversity in the Amazon River Basin, but they're under threat from human activity.  These ecosystems rely on the maintenance of the annual river flood pulse that drives inundation across the major wetlands of the Amazon. Infrastructure project proposals such as dams have increased in response to higher [...]