Flow requirements and resource delivery to the lower Murray lakes and northern Coorong

This project will develop models that forecast how environmental flow manipulations in the lower lakes (Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert) of the Murray River will affect primary productivity in the lower lakes, and change the supply of organic matter and nutrients to the Coorong and Murray nearshore environment.

The project will include field studies of the light regime and of nutrient recycling as a function of turbidity, water level and stratification behaviour in the lakes. The project is part of a larger CSIRO managed research program (CLAMMecology), that will undertake extensive field-based research into ecosystem response to flow changes in the Coorong and Lower Lakes.

Expected project completion date: October 2009

More information

See the CSIRO CLLAMM Ecology website and the CSIRO CLLAMM Ecology publications.

Outcomes

1. Determine nutrient budgets for the Lower Lakes as a function of riverine inputs, sedimentation, resuspension and recycling
2. Determine the contribution of sediment resuspension and riverine inputs to the turbidity of the Lower Lakes
3. Develop a material transport model predicting organic matter and nutrient delivery from the Lower Lakes to the Coorong and Murray Mouth during environmental flow manipulations
4. Using the concept of ecological stoichiometry (the study of quantities of chemical substances produced by chemical reactions), examine how resource delivery from the Lower Lakes could impact primary and secondary production in the Coorong and Murray Mouth region

Publications and Resources

None listed

Citation

Land & Water Australia. 2009. Flow requirements and resource delivery to the lower Murray lakes and northern Coorong . [Online] (Updated July 31st, 2009)
Available at: http://lwa.gov.au/node/3215 [Accessed Monday 22nd of March 2010 05:50:28 AM ].