Water-dependent fauna

2022-2024 annual report project highlights

• Two projects look at the distribution and movement of fish in NSW rivers. Golden perch movement in the Murray-Darling Basin and Native fish monitoring in coastal NSW, illustrate the use of two novel methods for fish detection.
• Three projects focus on turtle movement and flow requirements.
  • Manning river turtle monitoring for the Lower North-Coast water sharing plan uses BRUVS to monitor this species and relate population dynamics to water availability and water use.
  • Turtle movement in response to river flow in the northern Murray-Darling Basin trials the use of radio tracking of two species of native turtles.
  • Impacts of cold water pollution on freshwater turtles in the Murray-Darling Basin aims to investigate the impact of cold water pollution on freshwater turtle body size, reproductive output, movement behaviours and hatchling growth rates.
• Three projects look at the flow requirements of stream frogs
  • Prioritising stream frogs for environmental outcomes  monitoring uses data from the citizen science project Frog ID run by the Australian Museum to improve our understanding of flow requirements for stream frogs.
  • The Development of environmental DNA for stream frogs will establish a reference genetic database for 30 threatened or high priority species which can be used to monitor priority frog species in NSW
  • Status and water requirements of the Booroolong frog in the Cockburn River water source will use this environmental DNA assay to monitor the reintroduction of this species.
• As insects are a very important part of the food chain in aquatic habitats, there are seven individual projects looking at macroinvertebrates.
  • The macroinvertebrate responses to flows project looks at species composition in relation to flows.
  • The role of low flow access rules in protecting macroinvertebrates project shows the importance of flows at maintaining healthy macroinvertebrate communities.
  • The Snowy River environmental flow monitoring project looks at whether macroinvertebrate communities were restored after an environmental flow regime was introduced to the highly regulated Snowy River below Jindabyne Dam and Snowy montane rivers.
  • The Impact of climate change on flow and temperature regimes – effects on alpine freshwater ecosystems project looks at whether increases of water temperatures and reduced flow from climate change and water regulation affect bottom dwelling invertebrate communities in the alpine rivers of Snowy Mountains.
  • The River regulation and the impact on macroinvertebrate egg laying and recruitment project looks at whether altered flow regimes limit the supply of stream insect eggs in dammed rivers, by limiting the availability of egg laying habitat.
  • The influence of tributaries on macroinvertebrate communities project investigates how unregulated flow from a tributary can shape macroinvertebrate populations in a regulated river
  • The Giant dragonfly – assessing eDNA detectability and environmental water requirements project is trialling the use of a novel technique to sample this endangered species in its upland swamp habitat.
• Two projects are included that look at fauna diversity in relation to aquatic habitats. The importance of floodplain pool habitats and hydrological regimes for fauna in the northern Murray-Darling Basin project looks at the influence of inundation history, water persistence, level of connectivity, and other pool features on floodplain fauna using eDNA. The Great Australian Wildlife Search using eDNA to detect native fish, platypus and other wildlife in rivers and streams with the help of citizen scientists.