Species response to hydrological regimes and variability, and applications to ecosystem response modelling

Climate variability and river hydrology drive inundation regimes in floodplain wetlands of the Murray-Darling Basin. The response of floodplain wetland ecosystems to these drivers has now become a common theme in ecosystem response modelling and requires information at a range of spatial and temporal scales. At the species scale, we reviewed the likely response of 49 plants, 51 waterbirds, 15 fish, 15 frogs and 17 molluscs and crustaceans to hydrological regimes and variability. Information was compiled in a database of the water requirements of floodplain wetland flora and fauna in the Murray-Darling Basin. This database is a useful tool for exploring the response of biota to climatic and hydrological variability. Understanding the cause-and-effect relationship between hydrological change and biota is essential for management of these large and complex floodplain wetlands and information from this database is now being applied to ecosystem response models within the Murray-Darling Basin.