B Science (Hons)

PhD candidate, Freshwater Ecology

Contact Mr Ben Stewart-Koster

Thesis

Fish, flows and hierarchies: modelling hierarchical relationships in riverine ecosystems to aid management decision making

Description

The organisation of biotic assemblages in rivers is influenced by a variety of factors operating at a range of spatial and temporal scales. Riverine habitats are arranged in a strongly hierarchical manner and environmental features at one level may act as determinants of environmental conditions and aquatic biota at subordinate levels. This research aims to explore and quantify the effect of flow variation on fish assemblage structure across multiple spatial and temporal scales in South-East Queensland. Existing data sources form the basis of a regional level, hierarchical analysis. Bayesian statistical methodologies are utilised as a means of incorporating information from a range of potential data sources. A hierarchical analysis of this sort will contribute to the ecological discussion on scale and hierarchy in riverine ecosystems and will contribute to the management of regulated rivers in the region.

Supervisors

Dr Fran Sheldon
Dr Mark Kennard
Professor Stuart Bunn

Research expertise

• Flow variability and fish ecology
• Statistical methods for ecology
• Riverine hierarchy theory

Publications

• Stewart-Koster, B., Kennard, M. J., Harch, B. D., Sheldon, F., Arthington, A. H. and Pusey, B. J. (2007). Partitioning the variation in stream fish assemblages within a spatio-temporal hierarchy. Marine and Freshwater Research, 58: 675-686. DOI: 10.1071/MF06183.
• Low Choy, S.J., Stewart-Koster, B., Eyre, T., Kelly, A. and Mengersen, K.J. (2005) Identifying good condition in native vegetation: A Bayesian regression and decision theoretic approach. In Zerger, A. and Argent, R.M. (eds) MODSIM 2005 International Congress on Modelling and Simulation. Modelling and Simulation Society of Australia and New Zealand , December 2005, pp435 - 441 n. ISBN:0-9758400-2-9
• Stewart-Koster, B., M. Dobbie, B. Harch & R. Correll (2003) Community Collected Data for the Assessment of Ecosystem Health: Statistical Analysis of the South Australian Frog Census Data, 1994 - 2001, CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences Technical report. Report number: CMIS 03/85.