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Assessing Translucent Flows in the Murrumbidgee

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Assessing Translucent Flows in the Murrumbidgee Assessing translucent environmental water releases in the Murrumbidgee River below Burrinjuck Dam, 1999-2002 Report 3. Effect of translucent releases on biofilms and periphyton in the Murrumbidgee River Published by the NSW Department of Primary Industries, Office of Water Assessing translucent environmental water releases in the Murrumbidgee River below Burrinjuck Dam, 1999-2002; Report 3, Effect of Translucent Releases on Periphyton Communities in the Murrumbidgee Catchment First published July 2014 ISBN 978 1 74256 More information Lorraine Hardwick, Ben Wolfenden, David Ryan, Bruce Chessman, Doug Westhorpe, Simon Mitrovic www.dpi.nsw.gov.au Acknowledgments Lee Bowling, Simon Williams Alpine River, Kosciusko National Park, photo by Lorraine Hardwick JTN 12772 © State of New South Wales through the Department of Trade and Investment, Regional Infrastructure and Services, 2014. You may copy, distribute and otherwise freely deal with this publication for any purpose, provided that you attribute the NSW Department of Primary Industries as the owner. Disclaimer: The information contained in this publication is based on knowledge and understanding at the time of writing (July 2014). However, because of advances in knowledge, users are reminded of the need to ensure that information upon which they rely is up to date and to check currency of the information with the appropriate officer of the Department of Primary Industries or the user’s independent adviser. Assessing translucent environmental water releases in the Murrumbidgee River below Burrinjuck Dam, 1999-2002 Contents Summary .................................................................................................................................... 1 Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 2 Returning flow variability to the Murrumbidgee River ............................................................... 3 Study Objectives...................................................................................................................... 4 Methods ...................................................................................................................................... 5 Study area ............................................................................................................................... 5 Monitoring design .................................................................................................................... 9 Field sampling ......................................................................................................................... 9 Sample processing ................................................................................................................ 10 Data analysis ......................................................................................................................... 10 Results ...................................................................................................................................... 13 Hydrological changes caused by water sharing rules ............................................................ 13 Biofilm responses to regulation .............................................................................................. 17 Periphyton community data ................................................................................................ 17 Periphyton Chlorophyll A .................................................................................................... 23 Biofilm organic mass .......................................................................................................... 23 Biofilm inorganic mass ....................................................................................................... 24 Biofilm Inorganic:organic mass ratio ................................................................................... 25 Biofilm periphyton relationship with flow and water quality ..................................................... 27 Periphyton community response ........................................................................................ 27 Periphyton metrics – antecedent flow ................................................................................. 27 Periphyton community composition – antecedent flow ....................................................... 28 Periphyton community composition - water quality ............................................................. 28 Discussion ................................................................................................................................ 31 Considerations for future environmental monitoring ............................................................... 34 Considerations for re-evaluating the Murrumbidgee Water Sharing Plan ............................... 35 References ............................................................................................................................... 37 Appendix A, Hydrological indicators .......................................................................................... 42 Appendix B, Summary data and additional analyses ................................................................. 45 i NSW Office of Water, July 2014 Assessing translucent environmental water releases in the Murrumbidgee River below Burrinjuck Dam, 1999-2002 Table of Figures Figure 1. Sampling sites . .................................................................................................................. 6 Figure 2. River discharge in the Murrumbidgee. ............................................................................. 6 Figure 3. Total Monthly Flow (ML) as a Proportion of Mean Annual Flow .................................... 7 Figure 4. a) Photos of rivers. ............................................................................................................. 7 Figure 5. Mean daily flow (MLd-1) ...................................................................................................... 8 Figure 6. Releases from Burrinjuck Dam, 1999 during the study.. ............................................... 14 Figure 7. Releases from Burrinjuck Dam, 2000 during the study.. ............................................... 14 Figure 8. Releases from Burrinjuck Dam, 2001. ............................................................................. 14 Figure 9: Mean daily flows in the four rivers before and during translucent flows. ................... 16 Figure 10. Mean periphyton abundance (for each sampling occasion ....................................... 18 Figure 11. Periphyton genus richness for each sampling occasion ............................................ 18 Figure 12. Non-metric MDS of periphyton samples.. ..................................................................... 20 Figure 13. Percentage composition of periphyton......................................................................... 21 Figure 14. Ratio of diatom abundance to late stage colonists for each sampling occasion..... 22 Figure 15. Mean mass of chlorophyll-a (mg m-2) for each sampling occasion ........................... 23 Figure 16. Mean organic mass (mg m-2) for each sampling occasion ......................................... 25 Figure 17. Mean inorganic mass (mg m-2) for each sampling occasion. ..................................... 26 Figure 18. Mean inorganic:organic mass ratio for each sampling occasion ............................. 26 ii NSW Office of Water, July 2014 Assessing translucent environmental water releases in the Murrumbidgee River below Burrinjuck Dam, 1999-2002 Table of Tables Table 1. Sampling occasions ............................................................................................................. 9 Table 2: PERMANOVA design used for this study. ........................................................................ 11 Table 3. Hydrological variables selected for examining periphyton relationships with flow. ... 12 Table 4. Translucent Releases 1999-2001 ....................................................................................... 13 Table 5. Environmental Water Allowance (EWA) and Translucency as a Percentage of Annual Flow in the Murrumbidgee................................................................................................... 13 Table 6: Coefficient of variation (CV) and constancy (C) values for the four rivers before and during (1998-2001) translucent flows. ...................................................................................... 15 Table 7. PERMANOVA results for periphyton taxa richness between rivers and sampling years. ........................................................................................................................................ 17 Table 8. PERMANOVA results for periphyton multivariate data. .................................................. 19 Table 9. Periphyton Dominance in each of the four rivers over all sampling events ................. 21 Table 10. PERMANOVA results for the ratio of diatoms to filamentous green algae and blue-green algae. ............................................................................................................................... 22 Table 11. PERMANOVA univariate tests ........................................................................................
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