5.1: Bottom up and top down control of tropical river food webs

Outcomes

The project will provide a better understanding of Australia's tropical river food webs and insight into how we might go about developing new economic enterprises in the north without cutting the critical connections that bind ecosystems together.  It will provide improved capacity to predict the consequences of environmental changes such as global warming, and important river dependent industries such as fishing, tourism and agriculture on river functioning and biodiversity.

With this knowledge, Government natural resource managers will be better able to manage for the whole river rather than individual components – ensuring for example, that water allocation, assessment of new developments and park management, work together rather than in isolation.

Natural resource groups and land managers will be in a position to better target their efforts and resources to those species and ecosystem processes that are the most critical for river health. The implications for example, of removing an important species in the food chain or adding a new exotic species will become clearer.

Where is the research happening?

The research will commence in the Daly River (NT) which flows year round.  These results will be contrasted with the seasonally flowing Mitchell River (Qld) and the Fitzroy River (WA).

Who's involved

The research is led by Professor Michael Douglas from Charles Darwin University, along with scientists from Griffith University, University of Western Australia, and the Northern Territory and Western Australian Governments.

Locations