Flow-MER Fridays - Spring 2024

Our Flow-MER Fridays line-up this Spring includes:

1st Nov

12pm – 1pm AEDT

Breathing roots, shifting waters: Tracking tree evapotranspiration in response to hydrological dynamics
Dr Tanya Doody

8th Nov

12pm – 1pm AEDT

The Golden Ticket: Understanding the role of flow on golden perch movement and population dynamics at a basin scale
Dr Brenton Zampatti, Dr Jason Thiem and Dr Charles Todd

Please register for each session below. All sessions will be recorded, so if you can’t attend the live sessions, we’ll send you the recordings in the following weeks.

Session 1 – Friday, 1st November

Breathing roots, shifting waters: Tracking tree evapotranspiration in response to hydrological dynamics

Join us for a journey over the last 15 years to understand why measuring water use of riverine trees, using sap flow and water balance methods, provides a robust way to investigate the capacity of trees to respond to altered hydrology.

Hear how this method is moving away from the traditional condition index metrics that have been used, to an improved understanding of a tree community’s adaptive capacity to respond to change and when they might be heading to an altered state and require intervention.

Dr Tanya Doody

Dr Tanya Doody is a CSIRO Principal Research Scientist specialising in ecohydrology with a focus on field measurement of tree water use to understand vegetation water requirements and the links between water availability and vegetation condition. Tanya leads the Flow MER vegetation Theme as well as a research project that will enable scaling of floodplain tree water use and hence condition, across the Murray-Darling Basin using remote sensing.

Session 2 – Friday, 8th November

The Golden Ticket: Understanding the role of flow on golden perch movement and population dynamics at a basin scale

Golden Perch Macquaria ambigua are a native fish species distributed widely across the lowland rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB), with the species known to undertake long-distance movements over 100s to 1000s of kilometres when unrestricted by barriers. While environmental flows are increasingly used to enhance movement of golden perch, knowledge gaps remain specific to the spatio temporal dynamics of these movements, how they are influenced by flows, and how such movements influence population dynamics at both regional and the MBD scale. In response to such, the Basin-scale fish theme’s research portfolio had a strong focus on understanding the role of flows in governing movement of golden perch across the MDB and how this movement influences the population dynamics. Dr Brenton Zampatti and Dr Jason Thiem led a multi-disciplinary research team to collate fish movement data comprising a time series spanning several decades from existing telemetry and otolith datasets to analyse regional (>5 km) and interregional (>100 km) fish movements in relation to river discharge, including Commonwealth Environmental Water delivery in the MDB. In parallel, Dr Charles Todd’s team developed a Basin scale metapopulation model for golden perch, then integrated the findings of movement to explore the role that flow induced movement has in governing broader population dynamics. This webinar will provide a synthesis of this research, and the potential application of the results and approach used for management of this, and other species, in the MDB.

Dr Brenton Zampatti

Dr Brenton Zampatti is the co-Project Leader for the Flows, Movement and Fish Population Dynamics research project, and a Principal Research Scientist with CSIRO. He has worked for 25 years on the ecology of freshwater and estuarine fish across south-eastern Australia, including flow-related ecology and population dynamics, habitat requirements, and fish movement and passage. He works closely with managers and the community to transfer knowledge and research outcomes to the conservation of freshwater ecosystems.

Dr Jason Thiem

Dr Jason Thiem is a Fisheries Scientist with the NSW Department of Primary Industries and co-Project Leader for the Flows, Movement and Fish Population Dynamics research project. Jason’s current research program is focused on fish movement, spawning and recruitment within the Murray-Darling Basin, with a strong focus on riverine connectivity.

Dr Charles Todd

Dr Charles Todd is the Project Leader for FLOW-MER Population models project. He develops software to assist with managing native freshwater fish and created the Murray Cod management model, as well as undertaking a comprehensive scoping study for applying the template of the Murray Cod management model to other fish species in the Murray–Darling Basin.