Effect of climate change on stressed ecological systems : a case study of the Murray-Darling Basin

Ewen SILVESTER, , Department of Environmental Management and Ecology, La Trobe University, Albury-Wodonga campus, Australia | 13 février 2014

– Désolé, pas de podcast pour ce Grand Séminaire ISTerre !

The Murray-Darling Basin (in south-eastern Australia) is an important food & fibre production region for Australia and Asia more generally. Agriculture in the basin is highly dependent upon irrigation, with a high proportion of river flows diverted for this purpose. With a climate change trajectory for SE Australia predicting longer droughts and more extreme weather events, superimposed on a challenging natural (irregular) hydrology, the ecological outlook for this system is bleak. The past 10 years have seen a number of broad scale ‘pollution’ events that have a predominantly hydrologic cause (wetlands acidification, ‘blackwater’ events). This seminar will explore the factors that led to these events and the actions (both political and management) that are occurring to protect this system in the future. Ewen Silvester is Associate Professor and Reader in the Department of Environmental Management and Ecology (La Trobe University), and affiliated with the Murray-Darling Freshwater Research Centre, in Albury-Wodonga, Australia.

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