Our Themes

The MDB EWKR addresses Basin-wide research questions and knowledge gaps, providing research outcomes that are useful across the Basin and, as much as possible, taking into account climatic and landscape differences. Research priorities have been worked out in discussions with State and Commonwealth Government agencies who manage environmental water and environmental sites, as well as scientists involved in research.

As a result of these discussions, we are investigating some crucial underlying research questions (see below).  Overarching these research questions is the need to better understand the processes that drive the achievement of environmental outcomes, and applying these to different management situations.

Underlying research questions:

1. How ecological responses to different water regimes in the Basin (natural and managed) are linked to incremental changes in ecological health.

2. Medium- and long-term changes in ecological health, particularly how hydrological, aquatic and terrestrial threats can interfere with ecological recovery or improvement. How major contributors to the health of an ecosystem (such as, water flow, land use, invasive species) interact to affect biodiversity, ecosystem function, resilience and water quality.

3. How complementary water management and natural resource management can improve the effectiveness of environmental water management.

4. The environmental flow requirements for sustaining Queensland’s floodplain vegetation.

Our Four Themes:

By following these links to our four themes, you will find more details about the research questions, activities and collaborators we are working with across the Murray-Darling Basin to address critical knowledge gaps and practical environmental water management approaches.

Adoption and communication activities work across all four themes, synthesising and drawing together integrated outcomes and sharing them with others.

Find out more about our work as you explore the EWKR Story Space site.

Vegetation workshop with participants reviewing the experiments underway. Photo credit: MDB EWKR team.