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Preliminary Systems Inventory and Project Scoping River Murray Catchment Goyder Institute for Water Research Technical Report Se

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Preliminary Systems Inventory and Project Scoping River Murray Catchment Goyder Institute for Water Research Technical Report Se Preliminary systems inventory and project scoping River Murray Catchment Goyder Institute for Water Research Technical Report Series No. 13/9 www.goyderinstitute.org Goyder Institute for Water Research Technical Report Series ISSN: 1839–2725 The Goyder Institute for Water Research is a partnership between the South Australian Government through the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources, CSIRO, Flinders University, the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia. The Institute will enhance the South Australian Government’s capacity to develop and deliver science–based policy solutions in water management. It brings together the best scientists and researchers across Australia to provide expert and independent scientific advice to inform good government water policy and identify future threats and opportunities to water security. The following Associate organisations contributed to this report: Enquires should be addressed to: Goyder Institute for Water Research Level 1, Torrens Building 220 Victoria Square, Adelaide, SA, 5000 tel: 08–8303 8952 e–mail: [email protected] Citation Kirby M, Bice C, Doody TM, Hemming S, Holland KL, Jolly ID, Mason K, McGinness H, Muller KL, Nicol JM, Pollino CA, Rigney D, Wallace TA, Ye Q. 2013. Preliminary Systems Inventory and Project Scoping River Murray Catchment, Goyder Institute for Water Research Technical Report Series No. 13/9 Copyright © 2013 CSIRO, SARDI, University of Adelaide and Flinders University of South Australia. To the extent permitted by law, all rights are reserved and no part of this publication covered by copyright may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means except with the written permission of CSIRO, SARDI, University of Adelaide and Flinders University of South Australia. Disclaimer The Participants advise that the information contained in this publication comprises general statements based on scientific research and does not warrant or represent the completeness of any information or material in this publication. Contents 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 2. The Murray–Darling Basin ............................................................................................ 3 2.1. River flows ............................................................................................................... 3 2.2. River salinity ............................................................................................................ 6 2.3. River modelling ........................................................................................................ 8 2.4. Murray–Darling Basin Plan .................................................................................... 10 3. The floodplain – river ecological communities .......................................................... 14 3.1. Floodplain overstorey vegetation ......................................................................... 15 3.2. Aquatic and floodplain understorey vegetation ................................................... 20 3.3. Birds and mammals ............................................................................................... 32 3.4. Frogs ...................................................................................................................... 34 3.5. Fish ......................................................................................................................... 37 3.6. Micro‐ and macro‐invertebrates ........................................................................... 41 3.7. Carbon and nutrients ............................................................................................. 44 3.8. Algal blooms .......................................................................................................... 50 3.9. Biofilms .................................................................................................................. 56 3.10. Drought and salinity .............................................................................................. 59 4. Indigenous flows and environmental flows ............................................................... 61 4.1. The political and historical contexts ...................................................................... 61 4.2. Indigenous ‘water’ in the Murray–Darling Basin ................................................... 62 4.3. Conclusions ............................................................................................................ 64 5. Predictive ecology ...................................................................................................... 65 5.1. Frameworks and Assessment Methods for Environmental Flows ........................ 65 5.2. Hydrological Alteration (Environmental Water Requirements) ............................ 65 5.3. Habitat Suitability models ..................................................................................... 69 5.4. Environmental models for decision–making purposes ......................................... 71 6. Options for developing an environmental flow tool ................................................. 77 6.1. Management objectives and ecological targets .................................................... 77 7. Knowledge gaps ......................................................................................................... 82 7.1. Vegetation ............................................................................................................. 82 7.2. Birds and mammals ............................................................................................... 83 Preliminary systems inventory for the River Murray i 7.3. Fish ......................................................................................................................... 84 7.4. Macro– and micro–invertebrates .......................................................................... 85 7.5. Carbon, nutrients, algal blooms and biofilms ........................................................ 85 7.6. Indigenous flows .................................................................................................... 87 7.7. Predictive ecology ................................................................................................. 87 8. References ................................................................................................................. 89 Appendix 1. Workshop report ................................................................................................. 126 Appendix 2. EWRs for South Australia .................................................................................... 131 Appendix 3. Understory plant species list for the South Australian River Murray Corridor ... 133 Preliminary systems inventory for the River Murray ii 1. Introduction We report here the findings of the Goyder Institute Project E.1.5 “ Preliminary systems inventory and project scoping River Murray Catchment”. The project was commissioned by the Goyder Institute as a key part of its River Murray Programme1. The purpose of this project was to scope out potential follow–on project(s) by providing an inventory of knowledge and knowledge gaps, on: flows within the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB), the resulting flows into South Australia (SA), and how they are affected by climate change, SDLs, environmental flow management and other influences; constraints and opportunities presented by those flows for environmental and Indigenous flow management within South Australia; and relationships between the knowledge and knowledge gaps and SA departmental priorities for environmental and Indigenous flow management. Researchers in the project team each contributed expert knowledge of different aspects of environmental flows in the lower River Murray in South Australia. Knowledge areas included in this report were MDB hydrology, river flows, salinity and modelling (Mac Kirby, Ian Jolly, Kate Holland), Murray–Darling Basin Plan (Carmel Pollino), floodplain overstorey vegetation (Tanya Doody), aquatic and floodplain understorey (Jason Nicol), birds and mammals (Heather McGinness), frogs (Kerri Muller and Kate Mason), fish (Qifeng Ye and Chris Bice), micro‐ and macro‐invertebrates (Todd Wallace), carbon and nutrients (Todd Wallace), algal blooms (Todd Wallace), biofilms (Todd Wallace), drought and salinity (Todd Wallace), indigenous flows (Steve Hemming and Daryle Rigney), predictive ecology (Carmel Pollino) and options for developing an environmental flow tool (Todd Wallace). Potentially, several projects could be recommended as suitable for a follow‐on project; the Goyder Institute itself suggested ten potential projects when it commissioned the project. A key step in the project was to identify which was the highest priority (and why). This was done at a stakeholder workshop in early April 2012; the stakeholders included SA government departmental staff, catchment authority representatives and representatives from indigenous groups, as well as the research organizations of the project team, and the Goyder Institute. The stakeholder workshop, including participants and recommendations, is described in Appendix 1. The first workshop resulted in a reasonable consensus for a priority project on floodplain processes and their interaction with the river and terrestrial environment; importantly, the focus should be at the scale of the whole SA River Murray
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