Issue 243 – Murray Darling Basin feature

While knowledge of water availability is key to managing Murray-Darling Basin water resources, a commensurate understanding of ecosystem ecological response to flow regulation is also required to aid environmental management.

There’s an upside to the carbon-rich, black water that sometimes flows off the floodplains and into the rivers of the Murray–Darling Basin.

Elvis, Eric, Gracy - these ibis and spoonbill are telling their own journeying stories thanks to satellite tracking. Along with scientists on the ground monitoring populations and their movements, research will help drive effective environmental water management decisions.

Computer models will inform the delivery of Murray-Darling environmental waters to restore the flows that support thriving native fish populations.

CSIRO scientists have developed new tools to help control two feral pests wrecking havoc above and below the waters of the Murray-Darling Basin: the willow tree and the carp.

For the first time, scientists have quantified how much water trees on the Murray-Darling floodplain need, and when they need it. The results show that we cannot tell the health of a tree just by looking at its canopy—we need to look inside the tree.