Understanding the impacts of salinity on groundwater microbial communities is imperative, because these communities influence groundwater chemistry and suitability for human uses. Our study demonstrated that salinity has a significant impact on microbial community composition within the southern Murray–Darling Basin, Australia. Changes to microbial communities may have impacts on both ecosystem resilience and provision of ecosystem services.

We examined food-web structure and energy production during a managed flow in a floodplain wetland and found that duration of inundation had a significant effect on trophic dynamics. Sampling at three stages in the inundation cycle, we were able to describe changes in patterns of resource use and link energy provision and food quality to phases of invertebrate community succession.

This article belongs to the collection Environmental Flows in Northern Murray–Darling Basin.