Rising global demand for food offers a positive outlook for irrigators, with potential for higher commodity prices. However, producers face increasingly competitive and volatile markets, compounded by the global fnancial crisis. There are also looming shortages of water, as cities increase their demands, water is reallocated to improve the environment and flows are affected by climate change.
A researcher whose work has revolutionised management of water supplies through enabling early, rapid and accurate tests for toxicity has won the Land & Water Australia, Professor Peter Cullen Eureka Prize for Water Research and Innovation.
How much water do the wetlands of the Murray River need?
This project developed a model of the wetland plant community in 2,746 wetlands from the NSW and Victorian portions of the Murray River basin. The model used as data the average length of time out of each year each wetland was connected to the River Murray over the period 1990-2000. This value, called the connectivity, quantifies the wetting-drying cycle of a wetland. It describes the gradient between a (more)...
The objectives of this project whose principle investigator was Professor Richard Kingsford were to develop broad, Australia-wide support for:
A coordinated and national approach to protecting and managing rivers, river reaches and estuaries.
A sharing of management and protection strategies and concepts so all States and Territories can learn from each other as they implement various protection measures and invest in protective management actions.
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Algal Management Strategies, Nutrient Management Strategies and Catchment Management Plans frequently have as a major focus the reduction of phosphorus loads to surface waters. The expressed intention of the nutrient control is to reduce the frequency and intensity of algal blooms, particularly blooms of toxic cyanobacteria. In many instances a direct link between the magnitude of algal blooms and phosphorus loads has not been demonstrated. However, there is appreciable information in the scientific (more)...
Algal Management Strategies, Nutrient Management Strategies and Catchment Management Plans frequently have as a major focus the reduction of phosphorus loads to surface waters. The expressed intention of the nutrient control is to reduce the frequency and intensity of algal blooms, particularly blooms of toxic cyanobacteria. In many instances a direct link between the magnitude of algal blooms and phosphorus loads has not been demonstrated. However, there is appreciable information in the scientific (more)...
“Combining tracers and landscape modelling to predict sediment and phosphorus from different landuses and erosion processes.”
Sedimentation in streams and rivers draining agricultural land has resulted in severe environmental degradation. Eutrophication is a major associated issue, and the persistent occurrence of algal blooms has been linked with excess available P. The total amount of P in these systems has been shown to be dominated by the sediment bound load derived from erosion (more)...
“Combining tracers and landscape modelling to predict sediment and phosphorus from different landuses and erosion processes”
Sedimentation in streams and rivers draining agricultural land has resulted in severe environmental degradation. Eutrophication is a major associated issue, and the persistent occurrence of algal blooms has been linked with excess available P. The total amount of P in these systems has been shown to be dominated by the sediment bound load derived from erosion of (more)...
A classroom exercise for teachers of primary and lower secondary
Materials
A Large Transparent (Glass) Aquarium or similar container
30 ( Minimum 24) small film cannisters
Various materials to represent pollution as outlined in the list attached
Two large glasses
Paper towels, filters, scoops, strainers, milk cartons with soil to ensure correct disposal of polluted water and (more)...
The intent is for the assessment techniques described to provide an improved rational basis for setting stream rehabilitation priorities. Focus catchments were chosen that had issues aligned with those in the project objectives. Two existing assessment techniques; SedNet (Prosser et al., 2001) and RARC (Jansen et al., 2004a), were selected to be developed for regional scale priority setting, based on the project team’s expertise with these techniques. These techniques (more)...
