Water Resource Development and High Value Coastal Wetlands on the Lower Burdekin Floodplain, Australia

Conservation potential of artificial water bodies for fish communities on a heavily modified agricultural floodplain

“…While broader study results can provide guidance for design of future recycle pits or constructed wetlands to enhance biodiversity values, improvements such as deepening water bodies or planting of riparian zones could also be applied to many on‐farm water bodies. Riparian zones, even artificial, can provide an additional range of benefits such as habitat provision for terrestrial species (Sirami et al ., ), or management of landscape hydrology to avoid secondary salinization (Lefroy et al ., ); a significant sustainability issue for parts of the Burdekin floodplain (Davis et al ., ).…”

“…Before European settlement, the Burdekin Delta was dominated by forests, forested floodplain coastal ecosystems and fringing freshwater and estuarine systems, but has since been converted primarily to sugarcane plantations. These total ~90 000 ha, representing northern Australia's largest irrigation area (Davis et al ., ). Recent Queensland Government regional ecosystem mapping estimated that only 23% of freshwater wetland coastal ecosystem types remain in the Burdekin basin since European settlement, with remnant wetland communities discontinuous, limited in extent (GBRMPA, 2013).…”

Spatial and Temporal Variability in Pesticide Exposure Downstream of a Heavily Irrigated Cropping Area: Application of Different Monitoring Techniques

“…Barratta Creek, located in the dry tropics of north-eastern Australia (Figure 1), and with a 73 large proportion of sugarcane cropping in the catchment, has been identified as a high risk 74 area compared to other GBR catchments as pesticide concentrations [15][16][17][18][19][20] [15][16][17][18][19][20][23][24] . While previous studies have examined the concentrations and 77 loads of pesticide residues at various sites along Barratta Creek, no systematic and 78 continuous monitoring approach to examine spatial and temporal variations within Barratta 79 Creek has been undertaken.…”

“…The three freshwater 100 sites (Upper Barratta Creek, West Barratta Creek, and East Barratta Creek) have been 101 subjected to previous monitoring efforts [16][17][18][19] but not at this level of sophistication. The end 102 of catchment estuarine site (Lower Barratta Creek) was within the Bowling Green Bay 103…”

“…This irrigation 421 paddock runoff (and associated pesticide losses) is transported through a network of drains 422 which ultimately discharge into Barratta Creek introducing flow into a normally ephemeral 423 system and explains why pesticide concentrations in Barratta Creek increase prior to the 424 onset of wet season rains [17][18][19] . Several studies have shown that the dominant mechanism 425 driving the amount of pesticide lost from croplands relates to surface runoff following 426 rainfall as well as the timing of pesticide application [52][53] .…”