Murray Irrigation Region Aquatic Ecosystem Monitoring Program: 2008 Annual Report

"July 2009".

Project Number: Murray Irrigation Area Aquatic Ecosystem Monitoring project - M/BUS/86.

MDFRC item.

85 pages. 1 of 5 reports associated with project see (Murray Irrigation Region Aquatic Ecosystem Monitoring Program Development 2005: Pilot Study Report), (Murray Irrigation Region Aquatic Ecosystem Monitoring Program; Annual Report for 2006 ), (Murray Irrigation Region Aquatic Ecosystem Monitoring Program: Annual Report for 2007) and (Murray Irrigation Region Aquatic Ecosystem Monitoring Program: 2009 Annual Report).

The Murray Irrigation Region Aquatic Ecosystem Monitoring Program established baseline conditions in the rivers and creeks of the Region in 2006 and now provides the capacity to measure trends in key components of river health (vegetation, fish, macroinvertebrates and water quality) over the longer term. Ten sites were selected from six water courses throughout the Murray Irrigation Region; two sites on the Murray River, the Edward River, the Wakool River and Billabong Creek; and single sites on the Niemur River and Tuppal Creek. Justification of the site selection is detailed in the pilot study report (Gigney et al. 2007a) and protocols handbook (Gigney et al. 2007b). This is the third annual report of a proposed ten year monitoring program, covering the sampling periods April 2008 (autumn) and October 2008 (spring). It details the current condition of the rivers and creeks in the Region, with particular reference to water quality, macroinvertebrates, fish and aquatic macrophytes. This report has been produced in the style of “Smartrivers” reports (L. Benson EM (Ecology Management) Pty Ltd.) as requested by Murray Irrigation Limited (Murray Irrigation). In the results section each site is reported separately. The overview and discussion section provides some comparisons between sites to permit some understanding of the range of conditions of each of the ecological components within the region. A copy of the all data has been provided to Murray Irrigation.