Recent highlights from the Flow-MER Program

Science improves our understanding of how plants and animals respond to water for the environment and informs how environmental flows can best support them in the future.

As part of the CEWO’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Research (Flow-MER) Program, quarterly newsletters provide an update of recent monitoring, evaluation and research activities and preliminary observations and findings in the following Selected Areas:

The information is used by water managers to facilitate real-time adaptive management of Commonwealth environmental water. For more information about the Flow-MER Program, please visit the Flow-MER website.

Map of river system in Eastern Australia, highlighting the selected areas

Selected Area Highlights from Issue 9 Outcomes Newsletters (July-September 2021)

Junction of Warrego and Darling rivers

The vegetation of the Warrego-Darling is the best observed since LTIM/MER monitoring began, in part thanks to vegetation maintained by CEW over successive years.

Nine species of frogs were spotted over the course of the 2020-21 water year, including, for the first time in the history of the LTIM/MER Project, the broad palmed rocket frog.

More detailed information is available in the Warrego-Darling Issue 9 newsletter.

Gwydir River System

Groundcover extent is at its highest since the commencement of LTIM/MER project, with wetland plants dominating. Using CEW to maintain wetland vegetation during dry times has allowed these communities to boom this water year.

Surveys have found widespread evidence of waterbird breeding. 11 species of waterbird showed evidence of breeding in autumn 2021 – mainly swans, ducks, rails and cormorants.

More detailed information is available in the Gwydir Issue 9 newsletter.

Lachlan River System

Lake Tarwong received water for the first time since 2017 thanks to wet conditions and environmental water, helping to support wetland ecosystems that are the only places some of the rarer amphibious plants of the lower Lachlan can be found.

Fish-sampling has yielded hundreds of bony herring, a hugely important food source for the predators of the food chain of the Murray–Darling Basin.

Environmental water helped maintain connectivity between the floodplain and important wetlands of Lake Bullogal, Baconian Swamp and lignum shrublands.

More detailed information is available in the Lachlan Issue 9 newsletter.

Murrumbidgee River System

In the hope of catching a glance of local rakali (water rats), motion-triggered cameras have been set up in various positions alongside and floating on platforms in the water of the Yanco Creek System.

Call recorders have been deployed at 10 sites across the Yanco Creek system so that frog and bat activity can be monitored over the year.

More detailed information is available in the Murrumbidgee Issue 9 newsletter.

Edward/Kolety−Wakool river systems

Environmental water was delivered to provide refuges for native fish, crayfish and other aquatic animals from ‘blackwater’ – carbon rich water that can have low oxygen levels. So far so good, with oxygen levels still in the safe zone.

A survey into what the community of the Edward/Kolety-Wakool area think and feel about water for the environment has garnered 60 responses. Check out the Newsletter for results.

The team is creating a hydrological model of the Werai Forest which will aid in targeting the delivery of environmental water to help protect the forest ecosystem.

More detailed information is available in the Edward/Kolety-Wakool Issue 9 newsletter.

Goulburn River

Recent analysis shows how monitoring has changed the ways flows are managed to achieve stable bank condition and provide more food and habitat for water bugs and native fish.

Annual surveys have found 9 species of native fish that live in the river, including the nationally threatened Trout Cod and, for the first time in LTIM/MER surveys, Unspecked Hardyhead.

More detailed information is available in the Goulburn Issue 9 newsletter.

Lower Murray River

Analysis of the otolith (ear bones) of 56 silver perch and five golden perch is underway. Determining the ‘when’ and ‘where’ these fish spawned will help researchers evaluate the spawning response of these flow-cued fish to water flows, including CEW.

The field season is officially open. Stream metabolism data loggers have been deployed and zooplankton and fish larvae sampling has started.

More detailed information is available in the Lower Murray Issue 9 newsletter.