Restoration of Paika Lake and associated wetlands: Floodplain biomass and biodiversity responses to managed flooding. Vegetation monitoring report: October 2015 survey

[摘要] Paika Lake is a low-lying floodplain wetland located in the Murrumbidgee catchment about 20 km north of Balranald NSW. Until 2011 it was isolated for just over 100 years from flooding and disconnected from the rest of the Lowbidgee floodplain system by a series of levee banks and roads. Restoration of water to Paika Lake and surrounds began in 2011, at the instigation and through the co-operation of property owners Peter and Sue Morton (Dundomallee Station), Dianne Williams (Paika Station), and Paul Conlan (Narwie Station).Their enthusiasm for the restoration of their wetlands has since extended to their neighbours, including Ron Hoare.The whole process has been supported and facilitated by NSW OEH’s James Maguire, who has funded and negotiated significant infrastructure works and environmental water deliveries.In 2012, CSIRO, NSW OEH, Peter and Sue Morton, and Dianne Williams were successful in a joint application for three years of project funding from the Commonwealth Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (now the Department of the Environment), through the Clean Energy Futures ‘Biodiversity Fund’.The project aimed to facilitate restoration, connection, management and protection of Paika Lake and other wetlands in the surrounding area, through:1.Restoration of flooding to maximise vegetation and biodiversity recovery2.Selective grazing management and fencing to maximise vegetation and biodiversity recovery3.Monitoring of the responses of understorey biomass, groundcover and biodiversityCSIRO’s role in the project was monitoring of vegetation responses to managed environmental flows.While the Biodiversity Fund project formally ended in June 2015, NSW OEH and CSIRO are partnering in efforts to continue the main elements of the monitoring program. The progress of this monitoring is the subject of this report. The information derived from monitoring data will inform adaptive management into the future, and with other CSIRO research will provide improved understanding of the role of managed flooding in carbon sequestration and biodiversity sustainability in floodplain wetland ecosystems.

[发布日期] 2016-06-30 [发布机构] CSIRO

[效力级别] Environmental Management [学科分类] 地球科学(综合)