Environmental flow releases trigger spawning migrations by Australian grayling Prototroctes maraena, a threatened, diadromous fish

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Amtstaetter ◽  
Justin O'connor ◽  
Andrew Pickworth
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Flow ◽  
Diadromous Fish ◽  
Australian Grayling

Predicting the Influence of Streamflow on Migration and Spawning of a Threatened Diadromous Fish, the Australian Grayling Prototroctes Maraena

2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 443-453 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. M. Koster ◽  
D. A. Crook ◽  
D. R. Dawson ◽  
S. Gaskill ◽  
J. R. Morrongiello
Keyword(s):  
Diadromous Fish ◽  
Australian Grayling

Provision of environmental flows promotes spawning of a nationally threatened diadromous fish

2017 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 159 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. M. Koster ◽  
F. Amtstaetter ◽  
D. R. Dawson ◽  
P. Reich ◽  
J. R. Morrongiello
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Flows ◽  
Environmental Flow ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Spawning Activity ◽  
Regulated Rivers ◽  
Potential Conflict ◽  
Effective Delivery ◽  
Environmental Requirements ◽  
Australian Grayling ◽  
Species Ecology

Detailed understanding of flow-ecology requirements for aquatic biota underpins the use of environmental flows as an effective restoration tool in regulated rivers. However, flow recommendations are often overly simplistic and insufficient to provide the necessary environmental requirements for these biota. This is often due to failure to gain and integrate information on individual species ecology and, by using coarse generalisations, about flow-ecology responses. To inform more effective delivery of environmental flows, we investigated spawning responses of the threatened Australian grayling (Prototroctes maraena) to environmental flows over 2 years in three coastal rivers. Spawning activity was highest during within-channel flow pulses, especially during periods of environmental flow delivery. Peak spawning occurred in late autumn and was positively related to flow duration. This result has important implications for environmental flows management in regions where water is scarce and there is potential conflict among multiple users because, for Australian grayling, it is not necessarily the volume of water released that is important, but how the flow is delivered. Our study demonstrated the importance of quantifying flow-ecology relationships via targeted monitoring and research so as to develop appropriate flow regimes, and should encourage managers to examine more critically the logic behind generalised environmental flow objectives.

Improving our ability to collect eggs of the threatened Australian grayling, Prototroctes maraena

2015 ◽  
Vol 66 (12) ◽  
pp. 1216 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Amtstaetter ◽  
D. Dawson ◽  
J. O'Connor
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Flow ◽  
Fine Sediment ◽  
Fish Eggs ◽  
Flow Rates ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
Australian Grayling ◽  
Surface Drift ◽  
Spawning Success

Successful monitoring of fish eggs or larvae facilitates the assessment of management actions (e.g. environmental flow releases) on spawning success. Paired sets of drift nets (one at the surface and one on the bottom) were used at six sites in the Thomson River to determine whether we can improve our ability to monitor the spawning success of Australian grayling, Prototroctes maraena. Over 900 P. maraena eggs were captured, with 90% being captured in drift nets set on the bottom. All but one of the eggs were captured at two sites, which had faster flow rates and a substrate of small gravel rather than fine sediment. These results indicate that using surface drift net sets for sampling eggs in rivers with low turbulence may be ineffective and that spawning may be more likely in faster-flowing areas with gravel substrates.

ASSESSMENT OF HYDROLOGICAL CHANGES IN THE ŠUŠVĖ RIVER

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gražina ŽIBIENĖ ◽  
Alvydas ŽIBAS ◽  
Goda BLAŽAITYTĖ
Keyword(s):  
Hydrological Regime ◽  
Maximum Flow ◽  
Environmental Flow ◽  
Physical Structure ◽  
River Channels ◽  
Hydrologic Alteration ◽  
Water Conditions ◽  
Flow Components ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Large Floods

The construction of dams in rivers negatively affects ecosystems because dams violate the continuity of rivers, transform the biological and physical structure of the river channels, and the most importantly – alter the hydrological regime. The impact on the hydrology of the river can occur through reducing or increasing flows, altering seasonality of flows, changing the frequency, duration and timing of flow events, etc. In order to determine the extent of the mentioned changes, The Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration (IHA) software was used in this paper. The results showed that after the construction of Angiriai dam, such changes occurred in IHA Parameters group as: the water conditions of April month decreased by 31 %; 1-day, 3-days, 7-days and 30-days maximum flow decreased; the date of minimum flow occurred 21 days later; duration of high and low pulses and the frequency of low pulses decreased, but the frequency of high pulses increased, etc. The analysis of the Environmental Flow Components showed, that the essential differences were recorded in groups of the small and large floods, when, after the establishment of the Šušvė Reservoir, the large floods no longer took place and the probability of frequency of the small floods didn’t exceed 1 time per year.

scholarly journals Environmental Flow Assessment Considering Inter- and Intra-Annual Streamflow Variability under the Context of Non-Stationarity

Water ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 1737 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kang Ren ◽  
Shengzhi Huang ◽  
Qiang Huang ◽  
Hao Wang ◽  
Guoyong Leng
Keyword(s):  
Kendall Test ◽  
Environmental Flow ◽  
Mean Value ◽  
Test Method ◽  
Stationary Condition ◽  
Annual Streamflow ◽  
Riverine Ecosystems ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Streamflow Variability

A key challenge to environmental flow assessment in many rivers is to evaluate how much of the discharge flow should be retained in the river in order to maintain the integrity and valued features of riverine ecosystems. With the increasing impact of climate change and human activities on riverine ecosystems, the natural flow regime paradigm in many rivers has become non-stationary conditions, which is a new challenge to the assessment of environmental flow. This study presents a useful framework to (1) detect change points in runoff time series using two statistical methods (Mann-Kendall test method and heuristic segmentation method), (2) adjust data of the changed period against the original flow series into a stationary condition using a procedure of reconstruction; and (3) incorporate inter- and intra-annual streamflow variability with adjusted streamflow to evaluate environmental flow. The Jialing to Han inter-basin water transfer project was selected as the case study. Results indicate that a change point of 1994 was identified, revealing that the stationarity of annual streamflow series is invalid. The variations of reconstructed streamflow series are roughly consistent with original streamflow series, especially in the maximum/minimum values and rise/fall rates, but the mean value of reconstructed streamflow series is increased. The reconstructed streamflow series would further serve to eliminate the non-stationary of original streamflow, and incorporating the inter- and intra-annual variability would upgrade the ecosystem fitness. Selecting different criteria for the conservation of riverine ecosystems can have significantly different consequences, and we should not focus on the protection of specific objectives that will inevitably affect other aspects. This study provides a useful framework for environmental flow assessment and can be applied to a wide range of instream flow management approaches to protect the riverine ecosystem.

scholarly journals Wind speed inference from environmental flow–structure interactions

Flow ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer L. Cardona ◽  
Katherine L. Bouman ◽  
John O. Dabiri
Keyword(s):  
Wind Speed ◽  
Flow Structure ◽  
Environmental Flow

Graphical Abstract

Environmental flow assessment in a lake‐marsh system with reverse seasonal hydrological patterns

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinglan Qin ◽  
Xin‐an Yin ◽  
Xintian Qiu ◽  
Hongrui Liu ◽  
Enze Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Flow

Toward a roadmap for diadromous fish conservation: the Big Five considerations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pieterjan Verhelst ◽  
Jan Reubens ◽  
David Buysse ◽  
Peter Goethals ◽  
Jeroen Van Wichelen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Big Five ◽  
Fish Conservation ◽  
Diadromous Fish
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