Current Projects 2024

Vegetation mapping is crucial for assessing ecosystems by identifying vegetation types and their spatial distribution. For the South Australian Murray River floodplain, it helps indicate which vegetation communities are inundated, guiding environmental water delivery. However, the most recent maps, based on data from 2003, do not reflect recent changes, including two droughts, three overbank floods, new environmental regulators, altered management of in-channel weirs, and recovered water for environmental flows. To address this, the accuracy of the existing maps was evaluated, and new rapid assessment methods were tested.

Enhancing the population demographics and recruitment opportunities for woody floodplain trees is often a priority for annual and multi-year environmental watering. However, defining a viable population demographic and establishing success measures is necessary. Succession and regeneration patterns in forests and woodlands were studied. Methods commonly used to ascertain the population structure of floodplain eucalypts and the factors limiting their survival were analysed to create reference representations of viable population demographics. Reference distributions that characterise the potential number of individuals per age class were developed for three key species: river red gums, black box, and coolabah.