The Golden Ticket: Understanding the role of flow on golden perch movement and population dynamics at a basin scale

Golden Perch Macquaria ambigua are a native fish species distributed widely across the lowland rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB), with the species known to undertake long-distance movements over 100s to 1000s of kilometres when unrestricted by barriers. While environmental flows are increasingly used to enhance movement of golden perch, knowledge gaps remain specific to the spatio temporal dynamics of these movements, how they are influenced by flows, and how such movements influence population dynamics at both regional and the MBD scale. In response to such, the Basin-scale fish theme’s research portfolio had a strong focus on understanding the role of flows in governing movement of golden perch across the MDB and how this movement influences the population dynamics. Dr Brenton Zampatti and Dr Jason Thiem led a multi-disciplinary research team to collate fish movement data comprising a time series spanning several decades from existing telemetry and otolith datasets to analyse regional (>5 km) and interregional (>100 km) fish movements in relation to river discharge, including Commonwealth Environmental Water delivery in the MDB. In parallel, Dr Charles Todd’s team developed a Basin scale metapopulation model for golden perch, then integrated the findings of movement to explore the role that flow induced movement has in governing broader population dynamics. This webinar will provide a synthesis of this research, and the potential application of the results and approach used for management of this, and other species, in the MDB.