Enhancing native fish populations using environmental flows: a synthesis of outcomes from the Victorian Environmental Flow Monitoring and Assessment Program (#90)
Zeb Tonkin
1
,
Frank Amtstaetter
1
,
Wayne Koster
1
,
Matt Jones
1
,
Justin O'Connor
1
,
Ivor Stuart
1
,
Jian Yen
1
,
Annique Harris
1
,
Pam Clunie
1
,
Jacqui Brooks
2
,
Jarod Lyon
1
,
Charles Todd
1
- Arthur Rylah Institute, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Heidelberg, VIC, Australia
- Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Arthur Rylah Institute, Heidelberg, Victoria
- Water for the environment (or ‘environmental flows’) is increasingly used to reduce the impacts of river regulation on ecosystem function and help recover native flora and fauna. For Victoria, a fundamental objective of water for the environment is to enhance native fish populations, whereby flows are managed specifically to promote processes such as dispersal, recruitment and survival. Monitoring how these processes respond to environmental flows, and how they influence population dynamics is vital to continuously improve water management.
- The Victorian Environmental Flows Monitoring and Assessment Program (VEFMAP) was established by the Victorian Government in 2005 to monitor and assess ecosystem responses to environmental watering in priority rivers across Victoria. In recent years, the core objective of the program’s fish monitoring theme has been to examine the role of environmental flows in promoting these processes and how they influence population dynamics of native fish.
- This talk synthesises key results from the fish monitoring theme, including immigration and dispersal responses to specific flow events in both coastal and inland rivers; links with trends in population demography and dynamics; and how quantitative estimates of these are used to evaluate long term projections of native fish population outcomes under a range of management scenarios.
- The results have improved the way Victorian waterway managers and policy agencies communicate ecological outcomes of environmental water management to the community and water industry stakeholders; identify ecosystem outcomes from environmental water; and fill knowledge gaps to improve planning, delivery and evaluation of environmental water management in rivers.
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