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Research Organisation

Project Summary

This project aims to provide a knowledge-base to support better decisions on environmental water allocations for ephemeral streams, leading to improved management that protects drought refuges for river macroinvertebrates and their reproductive and dispersive mechanisms.

It will use experimental field ecology and molecular genetics to determine:

• the role of different types of drought refugia
• the level of threat to each refuge type posed by prolonged drying and unpredictable flow regimes and the consequences for population sustainability
• the effects of flow fragmentation on dispersal, population genetic structure and conservation priorities

Project Objectives

1. To determine the key drought refuges used by macroinvertebrate species in intermittently-flowing streams and determine the level of threat to each refuge posed by prolonged drying and unpredictable flow regimes
2. To determine the role played by different types of drought refuge in restocking macroinvertebrate populations in rivers and therefore the consequences for river communities of loss of each type of drought refuge
3. To determine the consequences of river habitat fragmentation caused by increased drying for the sustainability of macroinvertebrate populations by quantifying the effects on dispersal and the genetic structure of key aquatic species
4. Identify biodiversity hotspots among ephemeral stream communities and determine conservation priorities

Reports and Resources