Biological and Physical Data from River Sites Across a Gradient of Catchment Area Under Grazing in Northern Tasmania 

River sites were sampled during the summers of 2008/09 and 2009/10 in a survey designed to identify correlations between commonly used river condition variables and grazing land-use. Potential stream sites in northern Tasmania were screened by catchment size, northing and slope, and according to attributes aimed at minimising confounding variables, maintaining broad consistency in landscape and geomorphological context, and promoting independence among sites. A set of 27 survey sites was selected across a gradient from low to high proportion of land under grazing in their upstream catchments. Catchment sizes varied from 20-120 km2 and proportion grazing from 0-80%. Macroinvertebrates were sampled using Surber sampler. All macroinvertebrates within a 20% sub-sample identified to family and counted, with individuals from the insect orders Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera identified to genus/species (by Laurie Cook, UTAS). Algal abundance was estimated at each site as the proportion of algal cover and as areal density of benthic chlorophyll a. Physical data variables collected were: water temperature, conductivity, turbidity, pH, total alkalinity, nitrate+nitrate, dissolved reactive phosphorus, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, overhead shading, the proportion of fine sediments within the sampled riffle zone, accumulated abstraction index and accumulated regulation index. 

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. 

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. Based at the University of Tasmania, Professor Peter Davies leads the Freshwater Ecosystems Project that includes Dr Regina Magierowski (Stream Ecologist) and Trish Clements (the then Masters Student). 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. 

Data not provided.