Biodiversity of riverine landscapes: the role of patches and connectivity

The allocation of water for enviornmental purposes is a fundamental management issue currently facing Australia. This is particularly tru for Australia's lowland rivers; especially as the suite of environmental flow techniques are not directly applicable for these systems. Recent review (eg Arthington et al., 2000; Thoms and Sheldon, 2002) note a major impediment in the determination of environmental flows is the limited development of conceptual frameworks in this area. This study will apply and develop for thie first time, concepts and principles used in landscape ecology for the management of biodiversity issues in agricultural landscapes, to derive a framework for use in environmental flow management. An evaluation of this framework will be undertaken in the Macintyre River, which forms the border between NSW and QLD, and would provide guidelines for maintaining the biodiversity in Australian lowland river systems.