Increasing the understanding and use of natural archives of ecosystem services, resilience and thresholds to improve policy, science and practice
- Authors: Pearson, Stuart , Lynch, Jasmyn , Plant, Roel , Cork, Steve , Taffs, Kathryn , Dodson, John , Maynard, Simone , Gergis, Joelle , Gell, Peter , Thackway, Richard , Sealie, Lynne , Donaldson, Jim
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Holocene Vol. 25, no. 2 (2015), p. 366-378
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Despite the great potential of palaeo-environmental information to strengthen natural resource policy, science and practical outcomes naturally occurring archives of palaeo-environmental and ecosystem service information have not been fully recognised or utilised to inform the development of environmental policy. In this paper, we describe how Australian palaeo-environmental science is improving environmental understanding through local studies and regional syntheses that inform us about past conditions, extreme conditions and altered ecosystem states. Australian innovations in ecosystem services research and palaeo-environmental science contribute in five important contexts: discussions about environmental understanding and management objectives, improving access to information, improved knowledge about the dynamics of ecosystem services, increasing understanding of environmental processes and resource availability, and engaging interdisciplinary approaches to manage ecosystem services. Knowledge of the past is an important starting point for setting present and future resource management objectives, anticipating consequences of trade-offs, sharing risk and evaluating and monitoring the ongoing availability of ecosystem services. Palaeo-environmental information helps reframe discussions about desirable futures and collaborative efforts between scientists, planners, managers and communities. However, further steps are needed to translate the ecosystem services concept into ecosystem services policy and tangible management objectives and actions that are useful, feasible and encompass the range of benefits to people from ecosystems. We argue that increased incorporation of palaeo-environmental information into policy and decision-making is needed for evidence-based adaptive management to enhance sustainability of ecosystem functions and reduce long-term risks.
Interaction between a river and its wetland : Evidence from the Murray River for spatial variability in diatom and radioisotope records
- Authors: Grundell, Rosie , Gell, Peter , Mills, Keely , Zawadzki, Atun
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Paleolimnology Vol. 47, no. 2 (2012), p. 205-219
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Sinclair Flat is small wetland, located within the gorge section of the Murray River floodplain. situated near Blanchetown, South Australia, the wetland is closely linked to the River and, since regulation, has become permanently inundated. High summer evaporation rates deplete the volume of water within the wetland. However, this is compensated by perennial inflow via a permanent inlet from the River. This site provides an opportunity to explore the relative contribution of river and wetland diatom flora to the sediment record, and the fluvial and aerial contribution of radiometric isotopes to the system. The geochronological and biostratigraphic data provide an insight into the history of the water quality of Sinclair Flat. Evidence exists for the River being a source of sediments and isotopes and of diatom species typical of the main river channel. Prior to 1950, Sinclair Flat was an oligotrophic, oligosaline, clear-water wetland. The wetland shifted gradually to an environment that favoured clear-water benthic species, most likely as a consequence of changes following river regulation in the 1920s, although the capacity to date these sediments is limited. During the 1950s, the wetland became plankton dominated. Peaks in epiphytic diatoms during the 1960s suggest increased emergent macrophyte cover. The contemporary condition is of a connected, turbid, eutrophic and mesosaline lagoon. The ecological condition of Sinclair Flat has diverged considerably from its historical range of condition. This record supports evidence from upstream of widespread state switches in the Murray-Darling Basin floodplain wetlands. This record also lends considerable weight to modern studies attesting to the degraded state of the waterways of the Murray-Darling Basin and the impact of river regulation practices on the water quality of these ecosystems. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.