Impact of flow regulation and environmental watering on phytoplankton dynamics in Hattah Lakes system
Project title:
Impact of Flow Regulation and Environmental Watering on Phytoplankton Dynamics in Hattah Lake System
Activity information & objectives:
Along with the importance of floodplains to the downstream river ecology, Australian floodplains are known to hold a vast faunal and floral diversity. Thus, they attract both locals and tourists to the sites for many recreational activities providing the government with substantial annual income. Due to the heavy water extraction and diversion events, the flow of the Murray River is unable to provide a natural flooding regime to its floodplain lakes. As a solution, environmental watering is used to provide regulated flooding events at these wetlands to sustain the ecological diversity in the ecosystem. The environmental watering has reduced the ecological degradation in floodplain lakes, but the current regime still results in prolonged droughts followed by flooding events that would take over four months to completely inundate the area.
This introduces varying arrays of physico-chemical conditions and environments for a range of organisms in floodplains to thrive over time. This research will study the occurrence of phytoplankton, the lower trophic level organisms, under such a varying regime of environmental conditions. The purpose of this study is to understand the spatiotemporal dynamics of floodplain phytoplankton within the study site. This will help to determine when it is necessary to control phytoplankton growth to prevent algal blooms, but while also keeping their concentrations at a level to underpin the aquatic food web. It is also expected to suggest management measures that could be implemented alongside the environmental flow regime.
Status:
Completed
PhD Candidate:
Sewwandi (Sew) Wijesuriya