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
22nd Nov
12pm – 1pm AEDT
Applying Flow-MER findings to our work: Perspectives and reflections from the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder (CEWH)
Marcus Finn
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 (12pm – 1pm AEDT)
Recording available below!
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.


Session 2 – Friday, 8th November (12pm – 1pm AEDT)
Recording available below!
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.




Session 3 – Friday, 22nd November (12pm – 1pm AEDT)
Recording available below!
Applying Flow-MER findings to our work: Perspectives and reflections from the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder (CEWH)
The Flow-MER Program plays a critical role in supporting the work of the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder. In this presentation, you’ll hear about how the program:
- informs the planning, delivery and adaptive management of water for the environment
- supports transparency on the use of Commonwealth environmental water
- enables the CEWH to meet its statutory reporting obligations under the Commonwealth Water Act and Basin Plan.
As the Flow-MER Program enters its next five-year journey, this presentation will reflect on the success of ten years of continued investment in science, while looking to the future under the next phase of the program.
