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Drought

Environmental Water Allocation required to sustain macroinvertebrate species in ephemeral streams

Project Objectives: To determine the key drought refuges used by macroinvertebrate species in intermittently-flowing streams and determine the level of threat to each refuge posed by prolonged drying and unpredictable flow regimes To determine the role played by different types of drought refuge in restocking macroinvertebrate populations in rivers and therefore the consequences for river communities of loss of each type of drought refuge. To determine the (more)...

Irrigation Update 10

Modernisation of Irrigation Water Delivery Systems

This issue discusses the opportunities and challenges of upgrading irrigation water delivery infrastructure across Australia.

Professor Sam Lake

For quite some time, Sam Lake has been carrying out research on the effects that natural disturbanc es such as floods and droughts have on the ecological structure and function of flowing waters. While the effects of floods on rivers and streams have been extensively studied, the effects of droughts on freshwater ecosystems (both standing and running waters) remain poorly studied and the findings, until now, have not been comprehensively reviewed. This is a major gap in current (more)...

Farmers beat the dry times

Farmers in many cropping regions of Australia are recognising the importance of forecasting to improve decision-making for farming in the dry.

Drought perception needs a shake-up

Drought should not be perceived as a natural disaster, a conference of rural industry leaders was told in Canberra today.

Mr Ken Moore, Manager of the Social and Institutional Research Program for Land & Water Australia, told delegates at the Farming in the Dry session of the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics Outlook conference that drought is realistically a long-term component of Australia’s climate.

Salinity management practice guidelines

Managing root-zone salinity for irrigated horticultural crops in winter rainfall zones of Australia

A better understanding of plant requirements and the highly efficient management of water has led irrigators to apply water to accurately meet crop needs. This has meant a considerable reduction in the amount of water flushing through the root-zone. As a result, soil salinity levels have risen. Current drought conditions and low water allocations are likely to result in even less water being used to flush salts from the root-zone. The declining quality of water resources means that actively removing (more)...

Freshwater ecosystems in major droughts: summary of existing research

Some information exists on the impact of drought on flowing waters, but little work has been done on the long-term impacts of drought in standing water, lakes and wetlands.

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Drought, the "creeping disaster"

Effects on aquatic ecosystems

As a general phenomenon to cover most situations, drought is difficult to define, though basically a drought is due to a severe, abnormal deficit in the rainfall of a region. Four major types of drought are recognised: meteorological drought, agricultural drought, hydrological drought and socio-economic drought. This report is mainly concerned with hydrological drought, which is manifested in both the availability of surface water and the levels of groundwater. There are numerous indices for drought (more)...

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Lyndfield Park: looking back, moving forward

A story of two crippling droughts, the sowing of many seeds and one farmer’s transformation.

It is a very personal story full of insight and wisdom. It is also a story of gut-busting hard work, and of the courage of one family’s convictions against…