The NSW Government is taking a deep dive into our incredible aquatic life across the state \u2013 everything from turtles and dragonflies to frogs, plants and endangered fish \u2013 to improve the way we manage our waterways for the next generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Minister for Water Rose Jackson said the latest research coincides with National Science Week (12 to 20 August).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Department of Planning and Environment\u2019s Water Science Team have been busy uncovering the secret lives of the creatures who live in our rivers, creeks, streams, lakes, floodplains, wetlands, estuaries, tidal pools and reservoirs to give the NSW Government the tools it needs to make robust water management decisions that will improve environmental outcomes,\u201d Ms Jackson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis work includes a partnership with the University of New England which has tagged and tracked a selection of Murray River and Broad-Shelled turtles through the Barwon-Darling and Gwydir Rivers to examine how they\u2019re impacted by different flows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are also doing a separate study using high-tech baited remote underwater video (BRUV) cameras, an Australian first, to get a clearer headcount of endangered species such as the Manning River and Bell\u2019s turtles.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This information helps to shed light on river health and assists with forming detailed information for water management decisions including water sharing plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chief Knowledge Officer from the Department of Planning and Environment\u2019s Water Group, Mitchell Isaacs said environmental DNA (eDNA) is a key pillar of the research because even a small sample of water can reveal a surprising amount of information, including what creatures are living in and around the catchments or drinking from those sources at different stages of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNext month we\u2019ll head out and do some more fieldwork on the endangered giant dragonfly, helping us to understand this fascinating insect\u2019s water needs in critical upland swamp areas such as in the Blue Mountains where they make burrows,\u201d Mr Isaacs said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGiant dragonflies are usually only visible from November to January but we\u2019re developing a never-before-used method through eDNA to monitor this rare species all year round and boost our understanding of their presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re also now examining the final dataset from our FrogID partnership with the Australian Museum which uses an intuitive smartphone app allowing anyone to record frog sounds to identify their location, type, habitat and other details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOf the 32,000 croaks and ribbits recorded on the app from 111 species across the country in the past 12 months, we’ll be focusing on the nearly 13,000 that relate to 16 varieties of stream frogs that are important for water management decisions in NSW because they rely on streamflow to breed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To learn more about the NSW Government\u2019s work in this space, please visit Surface water sciencelaunch<\/a> on the NSW Water website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The NSW Government is taking a deep dive into our incredible aquatic life across the state \u2013 everything from turtles and dragonflies to frogs, plants and endangered fish \u2013 to improve the way we manage our waterways for the next generations. Minister for Water Rose Jackson said the latest research coincides with National Science Week … Continue reading “The world of water science shaping our future strategies”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22321"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22322,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22321\/revisions\/22322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}