Oral Presentation Australian Society for Limnology Conference 2016

LTIM – If it ain’t wet, it doesn’t help – Findings from Year 1 Stream Metabolism Measurements (#12)

Mike Grace 1
  1. School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia

This talk will present some of the major findings from the first year (2014-15) of stream metabolism measurements in five of the selected areas (catchments) in the Murray-Darling Basin. This work was performed as part of the Long Term Intervention Monitoring program funded through the Commonwealth Environmental Water Office. With a few exceptions, 2014-15 was characterized by relatively low flows. This resulted in no broad, discernible relationships between flow and rates of gross primary production (GPP) or ecosystem respiration (ER). It is hypothesized that this lack of a significant relationship is primarily due to the additional water remaining within the confines of the main river channels rather than reconnecting backwaters and perhaps the floodplain. In this context, the relationships between flow, nutrients and light will also be briefly described. While there were some regional and seasonal differences, rates of GPP and ER were at the lower end of the 'normal range' when compared to international data. But perhaps this is simply standard behaviour for streams in the MDB.