Bayesian network models for environmental flow decision making in the Daly River, Northern Territory, Australia

Terence U. Chan, Barry T. Hart, Mark J. Kennard, Bradley J. Pusey, Will Shenton, Michael M. Douglas, Eric Valentine, Sandeep Patel
River Research and Applications, Sept 2010
This paper reports the development and application of two Bayesian Network models to assist decision making on the environmental flows required to maintain the ecological health of the Daly River. The abundances of two fish species—barramundi (Lates calcarifer) and sooty grunter (Hephaestus fuliginosus)—were chosen as the ecological endpoints for the models, which linked dry season flows to key aspects of the biology of each species. If current extraction entitlements were fully utilized, the models showed there would be significant impacts on the populations of these two fish species.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/rra.1456/abstract

Daly River Catchment ? towards an integrated catchment management

Andrew S. Wygralak
ASEG Extended Abstracts Volume 2006 Number 1, ASEG2006 - 18th Geophysical Conference
The Daly River catchment has good soils and is earmarked for the future agricultural development. The NTG placed a Moratorium on major developments, pending completion of an Integrated Regional Land Use Plan. The aim, based on analysis of hydrological, biological, environmental and social studies, is to develop a balanced holistic catchment management approach. Most of the multidisciplinary studies of the catchment completed till now were conducted without sufficient attention paid to the interconnection between economic, environmental, social and cultural aspects of the river catchment management. As a result no integrated catchment management plan has as yet been proposed. Further research is needed to fill the existing knowledge gaps.

http://www.publish.csiro.au/nid/267/paper/ASEG2006ab200.htm

Hydrological changes and ecological impacts associated with water resource development in large floodplain rivers in the Australian tropics

Catherine Leigh, Fran Sheldon, 2008
River Research and Applications, v. 24(9) :1251 - 1270
We examined flow variability in large floodplain rivers in the Gulf of Carpentaria, northern Australia, and the potential ecological impacts of future water resource development (WRD). Flow metrics based on long-term records were used to classify flow regimes and predict hydrological drivers of ecological function. Flow regimes of selected rivers were then compared with those simulated for pre- and post-WRD flows in the Darling River. We propose that flow permanence and regularity; flow variability and absence; and wet-dry seasonality are the key hydrological drivers of biodiversity and ecological function in the floodplain rivers of Australia's north. Reduced and homogenized habitat, loss of life-history cues, inhibited dispersal and shifts in community composition, as a result of WRD, threaten the ecological integrity of rivers adapted to the three hydrological drivers above.
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/117954745/abstract

Environmental Water Requirements of Vallisneria nana in the Daly River, Northern Territory

N. Rea, P. Dostine, P. Cook, I. Webster and D. Williams
Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Environment, Repo2t 35/2002

This project focuses on the major riverine plant, Vallisneria nana R.Br., beds of which are a keystone habitat. Macrophytes play a role in providing food, breeding sites and refuge for animals, and in the cycling of nutrients, metals and carbon. They slow currents, trap organic matter, sediments and nutrients, reduce turbidity, stabilise banks, increase shade and reduce water temperatures. Vallisneria species were once considerably abundant in the regulated inland rivers of south-eastern Australia. Their loss is attributed to adverse changes in water quality and flow. The loss of V. nana would cause a cascade of adverse changes across the food web. The overall project objective was to make recommendations about the environmental conditions needed to sustain V. nana and its functional role in the Daly River.

Scientists urge expansion of freshwater protected areas.

R. T. Kingsford and J. Nevill
Ecological Management and Restoration, 6, 3, 161-162 plus full statement

Although freshwater protected areas are regarded as an essential component of biodiversity conservation programmes, a systematic approach to their development in Australia has been slow, and is hindered by incomplete ecosystem inventories at State and national levels. We review this situation and examine avenues for action. While there is no shortage of relevant policy in Australia, some protective mechanisms have not yet been used (many years after their development). In other cases ‘protection’ has been only partially applied without regard to important issues of hydrologic connectivity – with species extinction1 as a direct consequence. The most urgent initiative is to identify those ecosystems most at risk. A comprehensive national assessment of the conservation status of freshwater ecosystems should be undertaken immediately. Such an assessment would provide both a platform and an impetus for the systematic expansion of the nation’s freshwater protected areas.
http://aerg.canberra.edu.au/cgi-bin/pubs_archive.cgi?target=G

Achieving Integrative, Collaborative Ecosystem Management

H. L. Keough and D. J. Blahna
Conservation Biology, 20, 5, 10
Although numerous principles have been identified as being important for successfully integrating social and ecological factors in collaborative management, few authors have illustrated how these principles are used and why they are effective. On the basis of a review of the ecosystem management and collaboration literature, we identified eight factors important for integrative, collaborative ecosystem management—integrated and balanced goals, inclusive public involvement, stakeholder influence, consensus group approach, collaborative stewardship, monitoring and adaptive management, multidisciplinary data, and economic incentives. We examined four cases of successful ecosystem management to illustrate how the factors were incorporated and discuss the role they played in each case’s success.
Although this article is not based in or around the Daly River Basin, it has been included because it covers important information, which can be used by DRMAC.

The Daly Report: Part one. An assessment of the terrestrial conservation values of the Daly River Catchment and the threats posed by land clearing and

S. Kennedy
Environment Centre Northern Territory and The Wilderness Society,
This assessment is a review of current existing published and unpublished knowledge of the conservation values of the Daly Basin, and the potential effects of broad scale land clearing on these values. The effects of land clearing on terrestrial biodiversity and ecosystem processes are investigated, including those that extend beyond the extent of the clearing itself (“ripple effects”). Flora and fauna that could be affected by the clearing are highlighted. Various approaches to landscape conservation and the possible consequences of applying these are investigated.

This assessment covers the effects of land-clearing and the flow on effects of changing the ecosystems, this is very important when considering basin/catchment scale environments. Also included is a critique of the Daly conservation plan with some recommendations.

Environmental Impact of Undular Tidal Bores in Tropical Rivers

C. Donnelly and H. Chanson
Environmental Fluid Mechanics, 5, 5, 481-494, 10
Discusses the effects of a tidal bore on an estuarine ecosystem. A better understanding of periodic loading on river sediments, scour of river bed and flow mixing behind the bore will contribute to better management practices in tidal bore affected rivers, including the Styx and Daly rivers in tropical Australia.

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=egh&AN=19473980&site=ehost-live

Draft conservation plan for the Daly Basin bioregion

Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Environment,

This draft plan is concerned with ensuring the protection of conservation values, such as providing breeding area, habitat and refuge for important wildlife populations, especially of fish, turtles, insects, waterbirds and crocodiles. The goal of this conservation plan is to ensure that the species, ecosystems and ecological processes present in the Daly Basin are adequately conserved.

This plan discusses the features of the Daly Basin bioregion; geology, soils, water, flora, fauna and the history of human occupation. The key threatening processes in the basin and the proposed mitigation measures are also detailed.

The informative conservation draft plan provides information on a large range of conservation issues within the study basin bioregion, also provided in the plan are control measures that have already been established and suggestions to further developing them.

Landscape design for maintaining ecosystem services in tropical agricultural landscapes

J. Woinarski, Tony Griffiths
NRETA, Tropical Savannahs Management CRC
In Australia's monsoonal tropics, understanding of relationships between vegetation pattern and quality of ecosystem services is rudimentary. As part of a larger and longer-term suite of studies including water availability and quality, this project will examine relationships between designed configurations of retained native vegetation and the protection of local and sub-regional biodiversity, as well as the management challenges and costs created by different approaches to vegetation clearing and retention. Over the medium term, it will also contribute to studies of relationships of vegetation pattern and land use practice with other ecosystem services, including water availability and quality, and the maintenance of cultural values, including Indigenous cultural values.

Valuing tropical river ecosystem services

A. Straton
CSIRO
This project is identifying and valuing tropical river ecosystem services and some non-market uses of tropical rivers to enable comparison of the impacts of management scenarios. This project is taking place through 3 case studies: the Daly in the NT, the Fitzroy in WA, and the Mitchell in Qld. This project will contribute to the broader research agenda of the TRaCK research hub.
http://www.track.gov.au/research.html

Identify Aquatic Priorities for Inland Waters Across the Northern Territory

M. Kraatz, P. Jolly, M. Douglas and P. Lloyd
This project will provide information to enable more integrated decision making and planning relating to the Territory's inland aquatic ecosystems. It will review current information about these ecosystems (including wetlands, waterways and groundwaters), determine gaps in critical information for planning for sustainable resource use, prioritise research and monitoring work to fill these gaps and identify catchments and groundwater aquifers at risk from salinity, nutrients, toxins or sediment pollution, and recommend appropriate action. The work will be assisted by an Advisory Group with technical expertise to ensure all necessary information is gathered and assessed appropriately. The work will be done in collaboration with proposed projects under IW1 and IW2 assessing water monitoring requirements and environmental and cultural values. Analytical and risk assessment reporting will identify research and monitoring requirements for improving the information base for future natural resource management and the protection of inland waters.

Diversity of river life: bioregionalisation, conservationpriorities and predictive models of aquatic biodiversity

J. Hughes and B. Cook
Models will be developed relating the patterns of aquatic biodiversity to environmental drivers such as hydrology, climate, landform, riparian and aquatic habitat. This will help with predicting the effects of development scenarios in river catchments on biodiversity. Networks of areas with high biodiversity will be identified for conservation priority. This project will cover as many catchments as possible in northern Australia
http://www.track.gov.au/research.html

River foodwebs: bottom up and top down control of tropical river food webs

M. Douglas
Using experiments researchers will identify the sources of organic matter underpinning tropical river foodwebs, factors controlling plant growth in tropical rivers and which consumers (animals) exert the most influence on the ecosystem. Work, commencing in the Daly river, will build on previous research activity.
http://www.track.gov.au/research.html