Australia's Murray - Darling Basin: freshwater ecosystem conservation options in an era of climate change

Pittock, Jamie; Finlayson, C. Max

doi:10.1071/mf09319

Cited by 189 publications

(124 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…3) that loosely correspond to major drainage divisions, hydrological regimes (Haines et al 1988;Kennard et al 2010) and biogeographical provinces of freshwater fish (Unmack 2001). The implications of climate change in the Murray-Darling Basin are considered in more detail by others (Aldous et al 2011;Kingsford et al 2011;Pittock and Finlayson 2011;Balcombe et al 2011;Pratchett et al 2011).…”

Section: Regional Comparisonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Instead, it is better if the resilience of a system or assemblage is maintained through the mitigation of current and well known stressors such as water abstraction, habitat fragmentation and loss, water-quality degradation and the spread of alien species, coupled with the conservation of representative aquatic habitats and fish populations (Kingsford 2011;Kingsford et al 2011;Pittock and Finlayson 2011;Pratchett et al 2011). …”

Section: Managed Translocationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Climate change and its implications for Australia's freshwater fish

Morrongiello¹,

Beatty²,

Bennett³

et al. 2011

Mar. Freshwater Res.

156

132

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Abstract. Freshwater environments and their fishes are particularly vulnerable to climate change because the persistence and quality of aquatic habitat depend heavily on climatic and hydrologic regimes. In Australia, projections indicate that the rate and magnitude of climate change will vary across the continent. We review the likely effects of these changes on Australian freshwater fishes across geographic regions encompassing a diversity of habitats and climatic variability. Commonalities in the predicted implications of climate change on fish included habitat loss and fragmentation, surpassing of physiological tolerances and spread of alien species. Existing anthropogenic stressors in more developed regions are likely to compound these impacts because of the already reduced resilience of fish assemblages. Many Australian freshwater fish species are adapted to variable or unpredictable flow conditions and, in some cases, this evolutionary history may confer resistance or resilience to the impacts of climate change. However, the rate and magnitude of projected change will outpace the adaptive capacities of many species. Climate change therefore seriously threatens the persistence of many of Australia's freshwater fish species, especially of those with limited ranges or specific habitat requirements, or of those that are already occurring close to physiological tolerance limits. Human responses to climate change should be proactive and focus on maintaining population resilience through the protection of habitat, mitigation of current anthropogenic stressors, adequate planning and provisioning of environmental flows and the consideration of more interventionist options such as managed translocations.

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Section: Regional Comparisonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Managed Translocationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change and its implications for Australia's freshwater fish

Morrongiello¹,

Beatty²,

Bennett³

et al. 2011

Mar. Freshwater Res.

156

132

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…These impacts in freshwater ecosystems stem from changes to the natural flow regime (Poff and Zimmerman 2010), loss of river-floodplain connectivity (Tockner et al 2008) and channelisation and construction of in-stream barriers, to name a few. The added effects of climate change in already stressed ecosystems will only further exacerbate the decline in freshwater biota (Pittock and Finlayson 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate-change threats to native fish in degraded rivers and floodplains of the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia

Balcombe

Sheldon

Capon

et al. 2011

Mar. Freshwater Res.

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Abstract. Many aquatic ecosystems have been severely degraded by water-resource development affecting flow regimes and biological connectivity. Freshwater fish have been particularly affected by these changes and climate change will place further stress on them. The Murray-Darling Basin (MDB), Australia, represents a highly affected aquatic system with dramatically modified flow regimes. This has impaired the health of its rivers, and potentially limited the adaptive capacity of its biota to respond to a changing climate. Here, we present our predictions of the potential impacts of climate change on 18 native fish species across their distributional ranges against the back-drop of past and continuing waterresource development (WRD). Because most of these species are found across a wide range of geographical and hydrological settings, we classified the MDB into 10 regions to account for likely variation in climate-change effects, on the basis of latitude, elevation and WRD. Cold water-tolerant species will be under greater stress than are warm watertolerant species. In some regions, the negative impacts on exotic fish such as trout are likely to improve current conditions for native species. Because the impacts of climate change on any given species are likely to vary from region to region, regional fish assemblages will also be differentially affected. The most affected region is likely to occur in the highly disturbed Lower Murray River region, whereas the dryland rivers that are less affected in the northern MDB are likely to remain largely unchanged. Although climate change is a current and future threat to the MDB fish fauna, the continued over-regulation of water resources will place as much, if not more, stress on the remnant fish species.

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“…Reducing water extraction will be also be a key, although controversial, approach to maintaining flows but is well underway in Australia, in the Murray-Darling Basin. Protection of free flowing rivers from development remains a high priority for ensuring resilience of freshwater systems (Kingsford 2011;Pittock and Finlayson 2011). Australia has interstate agreements to protect all of the flows in rivers of the Lake Eyre Basin for example from water resource development.…”

Section: Freshwater Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate Change in Oceania – A synthesis of biodiversity impacts and adaptations.

Watson¹

2011

Pac. Conserv. Biol.

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Climate change is already affecting many of the world's ecosystems with far-reaching impacts. In this special issue, contributors focus on the current and projected impacts of climate change across different geographical regions of Oceania (Australia, Pacific Islands and New Zealand). In this synthesis, we examine how climate change is affecting the three main realms: terrestrial, freshwater (broadly including estuarine and inland saline systems) and marine. Within this context, we also examine general strategies for climate adaptation including reducing other threats (e.g., habitat loss and degradation), expanding protected areas, increasing connectivity, restoring habitat and translocations. We show that many of these general strategies will not overcome all the threats caused by climate change and specific solutions are likely to be necessary. Beyond the implementation of these strategies, there are significant future challenges which will hamper effective adaptation that need to be overcome by the scientific community. Our current understanding of the impacts of climate change on biodiversity remains poor; this is particularly true for poor nations in the region. There is also considerable uncertainty in forecasts of climate change, particularly at the local scale, and this uncertainty impacts pro-active planning. This makes effective implementation particularly challenging. Considerable focus is needed into ecosystem-based adaptation where local communities are integrally involved, allied with more active and accountable management of conservation, through adaptive management processes. The world is experiencing far reaching and long-term changes to ecosystems with major impacts on human communities, particularly in relation to ecosystem services. Our ability to develop effective adaptation strategies from the broad scale policy (e.g., emissions control) to local scale management (e.g., building resilience in ecosystems) will be significantly tested but the world is in an important period and scientists and practitioners need to keep trying different approaches and reporting their successes and failures to the wider community.

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Australia's Murray - Darling Basin: freshwater ecosystem conservation options in an era of climate change

Cited by 189 publications

References 57 publications

Climate change and its implications for Australia's freshwater fish

Climate change and its implications for Australia's freshwater fish

Climate-change threats to native fish in degraded rivers and floodplains of the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia

Climate Change in Oceania – A synthesis of biodiversity impacts and adaptations.

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