We rescued and temporarily housed multiple cold-water fauna (mountain-top associated fishes and crayfish) in reacting to extreme drought. In captivity, predation and aggression both within and among species reduced survivorship. Further experimentation, adaptive management and infrastructure development is required to prepare for future rescues of cold-water fauna, based on likely climate-change scenarios.

This article belongs to the collection Environmental flows in northern Murray–Darling Basin: what we know about the science and management after a decade of practice.

We tracked golden perch in the highly modified Gwydir River to understand their response to different flows and the effect of barriers. Normally considered highly mobile, we found our golden perch to be highly constrained and largely sedentary, with little apparent connection to the wider population. The recovery and restoration of golden perch in the Murray–Darling Basin will require societal change.

This article belongs to the collection Environmental flows in northern Murray–Darling Basin: what we know about the science and management after a decade of practice.

Understanding fire and inundation impacts on wetland vegetation communities is crucial for effective post-fire wetland management. Here, we measured fire and inundation impacts on water-couch marshland in the Gwydir Wetlands and showed that fire was a major but short-term contributor to wetland vegetation change, whereas drought had longer-term impacts, and inundation regimes had the greatest impacts.

This article belongs to the collection Environmental flows in northern Murray–Darling Basin: what we know about the science and management after a decade of practice.

Successful fish stocking relies upon releasing cohorts directly into habitat containing suitable supporting resources. We compared residency and movement patterns of juvenile yellowfin bream stocked on artificial reefs and less complex natural habitat. Fish stocked on artificial reefs showed greater fidelity to their release site and were detected for longer periods. Future stocking of bream or other sparids should consider releasing fish onto artificial reefs, with benefits these structures provide likely to be greater for estuaries lacking naturally complex habitats.

Studying beach environments by using boat-based methods has been difficult. Drone surveys were used to assess abundance patterns of large marine animals in south-eastern Queensland, Australia. Significant differences in the composition of animal groups were found throughout the year and among locations, with large marine animal sightings in >80% of flights conducted off North Stradbroke Island. This supports the use of drones to provide scientific data for hard-to-study marine species and inform management of coastal ecosystems.

The number of National Wetland Parks (NWPs) distributed across China has grown from zero to more than 900 over the past two decades. Is this unlimited growth always beneficial? After analysing the distribution and dynamic trends of China’s NWPs, we examined the resource-orientated and legal drivers that prompted the growth and its far-reaching ecological, economic, social outcomes and impacts.

The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands has addressed wetland–agriculture interactions, but without linking policy responses to agricultural drivers of change. An analysis of Convention documents led to four conclusions to close the loop. These covered deepening our understanding of how agriculture affects wetlands; exploring appropriate opportunities within agriculture to reduce impacts on wetlands; enhancing our ability to work with indirect drivers such as the demands for food; and ensuring that Convention documents were specific about the drivers of change and possible responses.