Large River Ecology

Large river research programme

Large rivers have undergone significant modification globally over the last few hundred years. These iconic rivers play a pivotal role is sustaining estuarine, floodplain and upstream aquatic ecosystems, as well as providing a range of ecosystem services such as drinking water, fisheries and flood conveyance. There is increasing concern worldwide over the ecological condition of large rivers and their ability to sustain these services, and growing interest in approaches to large river rehabilitation. However, compared to wadeable streams, little is known about the ways the biology or functional processes in large rivers respond to human pressures and restoration measures.

We sre conducting a suite of ongoing studies to address various issues related to:

developing sampling methodologies and ecological indicators for monitoring large river health ;

measuring the effects of various human pressures on river ecology;

understanding energy pathways fuelling fish nutrition;

investigating the role of floodplain inundation on food production and larval fish recruitment;

quantifying the influence of tributary inputs on river water quality and ecological resilience ;

evaluating the effectiveness of restoration approaches such as side-arm reconstruction; and

developing models of large river ecosystems to predict historical condition and outcomes of future management.

This work is focussing mainly on the Waikato River, but has also included a range of other large rivers spread around the country (see map).