The dataset consists of results from two stream mesocosm experiments that were conducted in the summer-autumn of 1996 and 1997 to distinguish the influence of fine sediment loads and nutrient concentrations on benthic macro-invertebrate and algal communities. 11 biological variables were extracted from the results of this experiment and were standardized for the purpose of training neural networks that could be used to diagnose nutrient and fine sediment impacts in field surveys. The 11 variables were selected according to how well they correlated with the experimental treatment levels (high and low values of both nutrients and fine sediments). The 11 variables were: chlorophyll a (mg/m2), macro-invertebrate familial richness, total abundance, and the abundance of
Oligochaeta, Leptoperla varia (Gripopterygidae), Nousia spp. (Leptophlebiidae), Austrophlebioides spp. (Leptophlebiidae), Orthocladiinae, Tanypodinae, Tipulidae and larval
Scirtidae. These taxa were abundant within and among the stream mesocosm communities and are common in a wide range of Tasmanian rivers. Values for each of 11 biological response variables were standardized by dividing by their average value observed in the experimental controls mesocosm samples from that year. See Magierowski RH, Read SM, Carter SJB, Warfe DM, Cook LS, Lefroy EC, et al. (2015)
Inferring Landscape-Scale Land-Use Impacts on Rivers Using Data from Mesocosm Experiments and Artificial Neural Networks. PLoS ONE 10(3): e0120901.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0120901 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0120901. This data was collected for the purpose of training artificial neural networks that could diagnose nutrient and sediment impacts in Tasmanian rivers. Each of the 11 variables were standardized by their average value observed in the experimental control samples from that year and some experimental treatment effects (Light) were ignored to simplify the neural network training process. Therefore, these data should not be used to make conclusions about the impacts of fine sediments and nutrients in Tasmanian rivers.
Credit
We at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
Purpose
The Freshwater Ecosystems Project is developing a suite of models to enable managers and planners to explore freshwater ecosystem responses to management interventions and climate change for the Tasmanian Midlands (with an emphasis on the impacts of intensifying agriculture) and the Australian Alps (with an emphasis on alpine and sub-alpine wetlands and bogs). Planners and managers will have the ability to explore responses of freshwater ecosystems to scenarios of management interventions and climate change.
The Landscapes and Policy Hub is a research collaboration that focuses on integrating ecology and social science to provide guidance for policy makers on planning and management of biodiversity at a regional scale. Focusing on two contrasting landscapes, the Tasmanian Midlands and the Australian Alps, the research hub is developing tools, techniques and policy options to integrate biodiversity into regional scale planning. The interdisciplinary research is placing particular emphasis on landscape-scale management of species and communities listed under the under Australia's primary conservation legislation: Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. This includes Matters of National Environment Significance like the Tasmanian Midlands Lowland Grasslands communities and the unique alpine wetlands in the Australian Alps. The research hub is hosted by the University of Tasmania and is one of five new national research hubs recently funded to study biodiversity conservation by the National Environmental Research Program (NERP) from 2011-2014.
