Theme 4: Material budgets (Water, carbon, sediment and nutrients)

Catchment development typically results in altered river flows and increased nutrient and sediment loads. Such changes in rivers and estuaries can have impacts on aquatic ecosystems and processes. Researchers in Theme 4 are developing models to predict the effects of land use and climate change on the sources, amounts and movement of water, carbon, sediment, and nutrients. Indicators for monitoring and assessing water quality and quantity are also being developed.

Projects

4.1: Catchment water budgets and water resource assessment

Leader:

Richard Cresswell

This project aims to start measuring and calculating the different elements of water budgets in three of the TRaCK focus catchments. To build a water budget we need to know how much water there is in the catchment, where it goes and when. Water budgets are a useful tool for catchment managers making decisions about water extraction. They also help us understand how aquatic systems are linked or isolated within a catchment and how other materials such as sediment and nutrients move through catchments.

4.2: Regional scale sediment and nutrient budgets

Leader:

Gary Caitcheon

To manage sediment and nutrient inputs to rivers we need to identify which of the erosion processes are most important in different parts of the catchment. This project aims to do this and so increase our understanding of how current land-uses impact the river systems in two north Australian river catchments.

4.3: Towards understanding the impacts of land management on productivity in the Daly and Flinders Rivers

Leader:

Barbara Robson

A common result of human activity in catchments is an increase in the amount of sediment and nutrients (phosphorus and nitrogen) found in rivers. This project will answer questions about how changes to the sediments and nutrients found in rivers affect the processes and plant growth in rivers.

4.4: Bedload transport in large tropical rivers and its effect on dry-season pool habitat dynamics

Leader:

Andrew Brooks

The pools that remain in northern Australian rivers during the long dry season provide an important refuge for stream fauna and flora and are often culturally significant. There is a common perception, however, that many of these riverine waterholes are being filled by sands. Changes in land-use upstream and the effects of climate change have been suggested as causes for sand accumulation. This project will determine, whether there is evidence for sustained infilling of pools within two north Australian river catchments.

4.5: Developing a Water Quality Monitoring Framework for the Katherine and Daly River Catchment

Leader:

Simon Townsend

A Water Quality Monitoring Framework is being developed for the Katherine and Daly River Catchments in the Northern Territory. The aim of the Framework is to provide a comprehensive and locally relevant guide to assist future water quality monitoring planning and implementation in an integrated manner. The Framework will be consistent with the National Water Quality Management Strategy and involves consultation with stakeholders and the community.

4.6: Trial of the Framework for the Assessment of River and Wetland Health (FARWH) in the wet/dry tropics

Leader:

Simon Townsend

The National Water Commission has developed a national framework that can form the basis of comparable national river and wetland health assessments, and has the capacity to bring together results of existing broad-scale assessments conducted at state, territory and basin scales. The Framework for the Assessment of River and Wetland Health (FARWH) is being trialled by TRaCK to evaluate the effectiveness of the Framework to assess river health in the wet/dry tropics, and contribute to north Australian river management.

Publications

Conference Participation
	Title
07/2009	3D Mapping and Morphometric Investigation of Gully Erosion Using Geoinformation Approach	Conference Participation
02/2008	A review of factors controlling alluvial gully erosion and a proposal for quantifying changes in gully erosion rates in the Mitchell River, northern Queensland.	Conference Participation
07/2010	Alluvial gully erosion rates across the Mitchell River fluvial megafan, Queensland, Australia	Conference Participation
09/2007	Alluvial gully erosion: a landscape denudation process in northern Australia.	Conference Participation
07/2010	Bedload transport dynamics in the Mitchell River, northern Australia	Conference Participation
09/2009	Characterising organic matter sources to the Daly River	Conference Participation
08/2009	Evapotranspiration fluxes for three land cover classes in the tropical savannas of the Daly river region of Australia.	Conference Participation
2009	Flow, water quality and algae in the Katherine River, tropical Australia	Conference Participation
2009	Precipitation partitioning for three land cover classes in the wet-dry tropics of Australia	Conference Participation
07/2008	Seasonal patterns of evapotranspiration from cleared and uncleared tropical savanna: implications for catchment water balance in the wet-dry tropics.	Conference Participation
06/2010	The relative importance of top-down and bottom-up control on primary production in a dryland-tropical river	Conference Participation
06/2010	The tight coupling of photosynthesis and respiration during base flow in the Australian Wet-Dry Tropics	Conference Participation
02/2008	Tropical floodplain hydrology and erosion processes: critical knowledge gaps and potential constraints on development in Northern Australia.	Conference Participation
07/2009	Use of spatial technologies for analyzing vegetation and channel changes in Daly River Catchment	Conference Participation
02/2008	Using Remote Sensing for sediment budget development in large tropical rivers - Mitchell River, Gulf of Carpentaria.	Conference Participation

Report
	Title
12/2010	A catchment sediment and nutrient budget for the Daly River, Northern Territory	Report
12/2010	A catchment sediment and nutrient budget for the Mitchell River, Queensland	Report
09/2009	A statistical analysis of flood hydrology and bankfull discharge for the Daly River catchment, Northern Territory, Australia.	Report
01/2010	A statistical analysis of flood hydrology and bankfull discharge for the Mitchell River catchment, Queensland, Australia.	Report
03/2011	Nutrients and primary production in the Flinders River	Report
08/2011	Surface Water – Groundwater Interactions in the Lower Fitzroy River, Western Australia	Report
10/2009	Towards a Water Quality Monitoring and Management Framework for the Katherine and Daly River Catchment	Report
11/2010	Towards understanding the impacts of land management on productivity in the Daly River	Report
09/2011	Trial of the Framework for the Assessment of River and Wetland Health (FARWH) in the Wet/Dry Tropics for the Daly and Fitzroy Rivers	Report

Conference Paper
	Title
2010	A Dynamic Model of Primary Production and Plant Coverage in an Oligotrophic Tropical River	Conference Paper
09/2010	Flood inundation mapping of tropical river catchments in Northern Australia using optical and ALOS-PALSAR data	Conference Paper
2010	Land-use change from indigenous management to cattle grazing initiates the gullying of alluvial soils in northern Australia	Conference Paper
12/2008	Using remote sensing to quantify sediment budget components in a large tropical river - Mitchell River, Gulf of Carpentaria	Conference Paper

Journal Article
	Title
11/2009	A model to predict the response of the benthic macroalga Spirogyra to reduced base flow in tropical Australia.	Journal Article
10/2009	Alluvial gully erosion: an example from the Mitchell fluvial megafan, Queensland, Australia	Journal Article
05/10	Differing effects of catchment land use on water chemistry explain contrasting behaviour of a diatom index in tropical northern and temperate southern Australia	Journal Article

Corporate publication
	Title
09/2008	Consultation Strategy: Water Quality Monitoring Framework for the Katherine and Daly River Catchments	Corporate publication

Magazine Article
	Title
07/2010	Daly’s potential goes under microscope	Magazine Article

Presentation
	Title
10/2010	How flow and nutrients affect plants and algae in the Daly River, N.T., Riversymposium Conference, Perth 2010	Presentation
06/2009	Seasonal patterns of energy balance and land use change in the Daly River catchment - OzFlux Meeting, Darwin, 24-26 June 2009	Presentation

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Theme 4: Material budgets (Water, carbon, sediment and nutrients)

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