How will river ecosystems weather global change?

The Richard Norris Lecture

How will river ecosystems weather global change? The scientific and social challenges in shaping a more resilient future.

Speaker: Professor LeRoy Poff, Department of Biology, Colorado State University.

Location: 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm in Inspire Centre, Building 25, University of Canberra.

Humans are transforming flowing water ecosystems around the planet, causing rapid declines in aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem goods and services. Among the key drivers in this transformation are various forms of water infrastructure (dams, irrigation works) that fundamentally modify biophysical processes in aquatic and riparian systems. One major response to this degradation has been to restore some historical flow variability to dammed rivers through provisioning of ‘environmental flows.’ A foundation of this approach is to manage toward some historical reference condition; however, baseline conditions are rapidly changing with persistent human land use modification, with assisted spread of exotic species and now with rapid climate change. The social and scientific expectation of a future that deviates markedly from the past is fueling paradigm shifts in water resources and conservation management. What can (and should) conservation scientists do to help guide the evolution of a new management perspective that can promote ecosystem resilience and support biodiversity sustainability in the face of expanding water infrastructure, in both developed countries and in developing regions?