2019
A report to the Commonwealth Environmental Water Office
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About the document
To investigate the physico-chemical and ecological responses to hydrological variation (including environmental water allocations) in the River Murray, a large-scale longitudinal investigation of nutrient availability and the lower order structure of aquatic food webs (i.e. microbiota) was undertaken. This two-year project aimed to characterise large-scale longitudinal patterns in physical (hydraulics), chemical (nutrients) and ecological (microbiota) response to flow (including Commonwealth environmental water) to improve understanding of the implications of translucent flow delivery of environmental water for resource availability, food webs and fish habitat in the River Murray and key tributaries.
- Year 1 objective - establish the role of hydraulics and water source in determining nutrient availability and structuring lower trophic levels of the food web using spatio-temporal patterns along the River Murray and selected tributaries.
- Year 2 objective - assess the responses of nutrients and lower trophic levels of the food web to watering actions at specific locations in the River Murray and selected tributaries.
This report supersedes the interim project report The influence of flow translucency and longitudinal integrity on resource availability and lower order food web structure in the River Murray previously published on this site.