The alteration of hydrological regimes is claimed often to be the most serious and continuing threat to the ecological sustainability of rivers and their associated floodplain and coastal wetlands. A major challenge for society is to satisfy the growing demands for water without degrading aquatic ecosystems and the ecological goods and services they provide. In addition, many of our rivers, floodplains and coastal wetlands are in a degraded state and millions of dollars are expended annually on their restoration. Unfortunately, little of the past restoration effort has been underpinned by a strong scientific base and few attempts have been made to measure environmental benefits. A broad objective of this program is to provide biophysical information to guide sustainable management of riparian lands and associated riverine and coastal wetland systems. This program will also produce hydrology – ecology models essential to sound prediction of the consequences of altering river flow regimes through water resource development and climate change. Ecosystem studies of this kind demand a high level of integration across the traditional disciplines of ecology, biogeochemistry, hydrology and geomorphology. Our research will lead to improved design and monitoring of these riverscape ‘experiments’ and help to identify some of the factors that may limit ecosystem recovery. Key outcomes will include whole-of-system methods and models for the allocation of environmental flows for rivers and estuaries, incorporating evaluation of the ecosystem services and biodiversity values provided by healthy rivers.
Skills: eco-hydrology, ecology, biogeochemistry, geomorphology, molecular ecology, trophic ecology, population genetics, phylogeography.