Enhancing whole-of-river conservation
Richard G. Pearson
A B * , Aaron M. Davis B and R. Alastair Birtles A
A College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, Qld 4811, Australia.
B TropWater, James Cook University, Townsville, Qld 4811, Australia.
Marine and Freshwater Research 73(6) 729-741 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF21287
Submitted: 30 September 2021 Accepted: 20 February 2022 Published: 2 May 2022
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
We argue for improved conservation of freshwater ecosystems at catchment or eco-regional scales by explicit assignment of values to all river sections and wetlands, recognising current disturbance, and aiming for ‘no further harm’ to the commons. The need is indicated by the global deterioration of biodiversity and ecosystem services of rivers and wetlands, increasing demands on water and land resources, and climate change. Regional pressures include multiple jurisdictions, competing demands, piecemeal management, pollution and habitat impacts. Effective resource and conservation management needs to integrate multiple uses via governance of activities of stakeholders, recognising hydrogeomorphic, water quality and ecological properties of ecosystems. Complete ecological protection is impractical amidst water-resource and land-use development, but we suggest that all river reaches and wetlands be given a conservation rating based on habitat, biodiversity and connectivity values. We present a straightforward approach to spatial conservation rating of freshwaters, using hydrogeomorphic typology and assignment of conservation values on the basis of available information and expert elicitation. We illustrate the approach by using the large Burdekin River catchment in north-eastern Australia. This approach is complementary to more spatially focused conservation prioritisation and could greatly improve management for sustainability, reduce further decline in conservation values, and facilitate rehabilitation.
Keywords: Burdekin River, catchment scale, development, prioritisation, stream, tropic, typology, water resources, wetland.
Introduction
Effective management of freshwater resources and ecosystems is regarded as one of humanity’s highest priorities because of increasing demands on water resources (Dudgeon et al. 2006; Vörösmarty et al. 2010; Elliott et al. 2019; Albert et al. 2021) and the disproportionate loss of biodiversity in these habitats (Williams-Subiza and Epele 2021). These demands impair the ecological status of waterways as a result of changes to natural hydrology, morphology and water quality (Lemm et al. 2021). The need for improved stewardship of the common asset is urgent; for example, the ‘Brisbane Declaration’ calls for action to restore flows and ecosystems for their values and services as an integral component of water resource management and sustainable development (Arthington et al. 2018a, 2018b). The recent ‘second warning to humanity’ highlighted the need to address ‘the loss and degradation of wetlands, the declining availability of freshwater, and the likely consequences of climate change’ (Finlayson et al. 2019). Although it is generally recognised that freshwaters and estuaries provide vital ecosystem services as a commons (e.g. Capon and Bunn 2015; Maynard et al. 2015; Pearson et al. 2021), explicit whole-of-river, or even subcatchment, conservation is very rare. Conservation of freshwater ecosystems is challenging because of extensive catchment and instream connectivity. However, environmental management at the catchment scale has advanced greatly in some jurisdictions; for example, in Australia, natural resource management (NRM) organisations partner with government, funding agencies, landowners, scientists and other stakeholders, aiming for positive environmental outcomes (e.g. Bohnet et al. 2013; Curtis et al. 2014; NRM Regions Australia 2021). Nevertheless, these entities have inconsistent governance mandates among states and their activities are constrained by competing priorities, including agricultural and water resource developments, which frequently prevail over resource and biodiversity conservation (e.g. Beasley 2021). Informed management may also be constrained by limited research on the links among biogeography, climate change, ecosystem processes and biodiversity (Barmuta 2003).
A strong theoretical base for conservation management has developed, mostly focused on areal terrestrial and marine management. In the past decade, interest has grown in rivers and riparian zones as important habitats and, particularly, as agents of instream and catchment connectivity (Kingsford et al. 2005; Hermoso et al. 2011; Linke et al. 2011, 2012). The emphasis has been mainly on prioritising high-value species and ecosystems, but the need to accommodate both biodiversity and human utility in conservation (Barmuta et al. 2011) is recognised, for example, via ‘multiple protection tiers’, which indicate different levels of conservation action to accommodate human use (Linke et al. 2019). Modelling approaches for conservation prioritisation require substantial data input (e.g. Kennard 2011; Turak et al. 2011) but in data-poor areas more coarse strategies are necessary – for example, classification according to landscape and hydrogeomorphic characteristics for conservation planning (van Deventer et al. 2016).
Protected areas provide inadequate conservation of freshwaters globally because they typically do not capture the full range of aquatic habitats (Hermoso et al. 2016). For example, in Australia, ~8% of streams are in protected areas (Stein and Nevill 2011), compared with ~15% globally (Bastin et al. 2019). Even in the Australian Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, in which nearly 50% of the land is in protected areas (Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority 2012), only headwater streams are well represented, and ~80% of freshwater habitat is excluded (Januchowski-Hartley et al. 2011). Although there are promising signs of greater acknowledgement of environmental issues in water management (e.g. Productivity Commission 2021) and environmental assessment (e.g. Queensland Government 2017b), proactive catchment-wide conservation management is limited. Management of the Murray–Darling system via legislation and planning was promising, but has not been entirely successful (Chen et al. 2021).
Given the need for improved conservation management, we advocate whole-of-river conservation categorisation by using a straightforward approach, especially for systems with limited availability of ecological data. Most advanced approaches to conservation relate to prioritisation of the areas of highest value. Although such prioritisation is valuable, a whole-of-river approach is required (Kingsford et al. 2005) because limiting explicit protection to river sections of greatest conservation value precludes capture of the entirety of habitat types, biodiversity and vital connectivity. We propose a prior and complementary step based on geomorphological typology and simple conservation value assignment, applied comprehensively across whole systems as a basis for their protection and management, within the context of current and possible future land and water use (cf. Connolly et al. 2011). Our approach has the ultimate aim of broad adoption. We illustrate this approach through a case study of the Burdekin River (Fig. 1), a major system draining into the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) lagoon, which reflects many of the management issues that apply to freshwater systems worldwide. Before outlining our methodology, we summarise the ecological values of the Burdekin River, its current and proposed development status, current management regimes and the need for its explicit conservation within the development context.
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Burdekin catchment: landscape, ecology, development
Background
We focus on the Burdekin system because of its large size, its economic importance and associated environmental pressures (NQ Dry Tropics 2016a), its ecosystem values and services, including the diversity of its environments and biota (Brizga et al. 2006; NQ Dry Tropics 2016a), its Indigenous values (Davis et al. 2014), the importance of its discharge and associated contaminants to the GBR (McCloskey et al. 2021), the moderate (although patchy) scientific knowledge of the system (Connolly et al. 2011), important management activities in the landscape (e.g. Landsberg et al. 1998; O’Reagain et al. 2005; McIvor 2012; NQ Dry Tropics 2016b), and because the region is reportedly uniquely positioned for agricultural expansion (Australian Government 2015). Despite extensive development, important conservation criteria (e.g. naturalness, representativeness, diversity, rarity, linked habitats, migratory species and dispersal of terrestrial species; Dunn 2004) are relevant to the Burdekin River (Brizga et al. 2006), and all 47 subcatchments have been rated positively for their aquatic ecosystem and cultural values (Kerr 2013). However, only 6% of the Burdekin catchment area is in protected areas (NQ Dry Tropics 2016b), including some perennial streams and many wetlands, and does not capture intermittent streams or the larger rivers. Environmental research on the Burdekin and other rivers of the GBR catchment has focused on delivery of land-based pollutants to the GBR (e.g. Brodie et al. 2012, 2017). Although the need for enhanced holistic planning and management of linked land- and seascapes has been recognised (Productivity Commission 2021), particularly in the GBR region, (Brodie and Pearson 2016; Waterhouse et al. 2016), publications concerning the ecology and values of rivers themselves are limited (see below).
Landscape and ecology
Broad biophysical descriptions of the Burdekin River and basin are summarised in Table 1. The flow regime is dominated by the seasonal wet and dry cycle, and while the seasonality is predictable, flow volumes are not (Fig. 2). The catchment has received much attention because of its major inputs of freshwater discharge, fine sediments and nutrients into GBR waters (McCloskey et al. 2021), but less attention is being given to its freshwater systems. Here we outline the patchy ecological knowledge of the river and wetlands (Table 2).
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Headwaters include springs and rocky or sandy streams (orders 1–3), descending to broad plains with low gradient and mostly sandy substrata, eventually converging on the main tributaries. Substantial research has been undertaken on Birthday Creek, a perennial Wet Tropics stream, focusing on drivers of invertebrate diversity and dynamics, and trophic relationships, but this represents only a very small part of the Burdekin catchment. For much of the catchment, headwater streams are intermittent and have received little attention.
Mid-sized streams and rivers (orders 4, 5) may be perennial in basaltic areas but mostly flow seasonally, with disconnected waterholes sustained by the water table. They have moderate invertebrate and fish diversity and food webs are driven by multiple basal sources and omnivory. The larger tributaries and main Burdekin River (orders 6, 7) have high banks, well vegetated flats alongside the main channel, with the wetted area meandering within the channel over a sandy substratum and occasional rocky outcrops. Invertebrates are abundant but appear not to be diverse, whereas fish diversity is comparable with that of other rivers of similar size.
The Burdekin Falls (site of the major dam site) delineates middle- and lower-river sections. Many invertebrates and fish occur in the lower river, including many opportunistic marine or estuarine species and some that depend on connectivity between freshwater and marine environments for spawning (Pearson et al. 2021). However, there is very limited ecological information. The Burdekin estuary comprises the 1.0-km-wide main river channel and ancillary distributaries, within Australia’s largest delta. There is little published information on the estuary but it is expected to be productive and provide extensive habitat, like other estuaries in the region.
Lentic waters comprise lakes and swamps, both perennial and intermittent, as well as the riverine waterholes. In the upper catchment, groundwater sustains perennial wetlands, especially in basaltic parts of the north. The floodplain has a great expanse of freshwater and brackish wetlands that are of international importance and Ramsar-listed. They are fed by local rainfall, occasional flooding of the Burdekin River and high groundwater levels, as well as by irrigation supply and tailwater.
Groundwater sustains the river and wetlands through most of the year, in the absence of surface run-off and irrigation tailwater (e.g. Davis et al. 2017). It is used for irrigation on the delta, requiring control of recharge and use (Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority 2013). There is very little ecological information on groundwater in the catchment.
Development impacts
Little of the Burdekin system has escaped the impact of development over the past 150 years, including changes in land use, water quality and habitat, water flow, and climate, many of which co-occur and probably interact (Pearson et al. 2021). The major land use in the catchment by areal extent is cattle grazing across the wooded and cleared rangelands. Resultant impacts have been weed invasion, erosion, salinity and elevated sediment and nutrient loads in the river (Table 3). Cropping is dominated by irrigated sugarcane (~80 000 ha) on the delta and coastal floodplain. Irrigation has caused issues of water management (greatly raising some water tables and lowering others), loss of riparian vegetation, weed invasion and water quality for the extensive wetlands (Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority 2013; NQ Dry Tropics 2016b). The huge Burdekin Falls Dam has reduced floods and coarse sediment transport, while supplementing dry-season flow in the river and across the floodplain, with impact on invasive weeds and water quality. Climate change is predicted to affect various attributes of coastal wetlands and to reduce biodiversity. The catchment is not subject to concentrated heavy industry or intense urbanisation. Mining occurs to a limited extent.
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Future development
The Australian Government’s (2015) White Paper on developing the north highlighted the unique ecological values of the rangelands (‘the largest intact tropical savanna in the world’) and identified the key threats as fire, climate change, coastal development, feral animals, overgrazing, fishing, weeds, land clearing and water quality. An additional threat is loss of Indigenous values and cultural heritage. All are relevant to proposed impoundments in the Burdekin catchment (Fig. 1). These proposals, associated with agricultural expansion and within the framework of the Burdekin Basin Water Plan (Queensland Government 2007), have long been mooted, with substantial public funding to investigate proposals. Raising of the Burdekin Falls Dam is the most cost-effective development in the whole of northern Australia (Petheram et al. 2018), although it may exacerbate current environmental issues (Brizga et al. 2006). Nevertheless, the other proposals are being strongly promoted. All proposals present high risk of substantial degradation of habitats, connectivity and ecological processes, including migrations by freshwater fish (Burrows 1999; Brizga et al. 2006), coastal fishery production, sediment transport and possibly floodplain wetlands (Burrows 1999; Wolanski and Hopper 2022).
Management and research for mitigation and conservation
Typically, governance and management of a catchment is within the auspices of several government departments and agencies, the goals of which may differ and compete. For example, for the Burdekin River, there is a complex of regulations and plans relevant to water management, environmental protection and native title (Queensland Government 2007, 2017a, 2021c; NQ Dry Tropics 2016b). Improvements in land management are promoted and facilitated by the NRM board, which has a whole-of-system approach to land and water management, in partnership with funding bodies, stakeholders and researchers, in keeping with the Reef Water Quality Protection Plan and Reef 2050 Plan targets (NQ Dry Tropics 2016a, 2016b, 2021). However, adoption by industry of best-practice guidelines has been slow (Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority 2019), with mixed success in restoration of wetlands (Waltham et al. 2019).
The current environmental impact statement (EIS) process in Queensland, required for new projects, is illustrated by the terms of reference for the Urannah Dam proposal (Queensland Government 2021a). The objectives include assessment of environmental, social and economic impacts of the project, within the regional and local infrastructure context, and refer specifically to environmental-flow objectives, terrestrial impacts, crops to be irrigated and resultant water quality, and long-term protection of aquatic biodiversity and connectivity. The context includes possible cumulative impacts and the need for holistic appraisal, which were not addressed in the development of the Burdekin Falls Dam (Day 1989; Moon 1998); however, anecdotal information suggests that holistic assessment may not be achieved because of the involvement of different practitioners on the various projects.
Current conservation status
Conservation approaches and associated legislation vary among jurisdictions. In Queensland, the government increasingly recognises the importance of freshwaters (Queensland Government 2017b), but protected-area management is mainly focused on terrestrial systems, with limited explicit conservation of river sections, as elsewhere (Stein and Nevill 2011; Nogueira et al. 2021). Incidental protection may occur in land-based reserves, such as in the Wet Tropics, a large proportion of which is in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area; however, even there, protection of the bioregion’s freshwater habitats is limited (Januchowski-Hartley et al. 2011). Although the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, the Bowling Green Bay Ramsar wetlands and declared fish habitat afford some protection in the Burdekin catchment (Connolly et al. 2011), these areas fail to capture the full diversity of freshwater/estuarine environments. Implicit protection may apply through regulations on water quality or species protection, but may be ineffective, for example, for nesting turtles downstream of the Burdekin Falls Dam (Brizga et al. 2006). More explicit conservation, especially of rivers, is warranted (Pearson et al. 2021) and, recognising the current development status, could be applied to different extents to specified sections (Linke et al. 2019). For example, the upper-middle Burdekin River is largely in good condition and warrants special protection, whereas downstream of the Burdekin Falls Dam, which has been greatly modified, urgent protection of remaining habitat, connectivity and biodiversity values is warranted. A conservation management plan for the whole river and floodplain is required (Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority 2013) to provide stewardship, protecting against further damage (Reside et al. 2017), mitigating predicted species losses (James et al. 2017) and rehabilitating damaged systems (Burrows and Butler 2007) from catchment to coast (Waterhouse et al. 2016).
Towards more explicit conservation in holistic management
A first step towards broad-scale conservation management is an understanding of the characteristics and values of the ‘riverscape’ (Fausch et al. 2002), including consideration of scale, patchiness and connectivity (Poole 2002), and holistic flow management (Tonkin et al. 2021). A hydrogeomorphic typology of waterways is a useful starting point (Rinaldi et al. 2016), because it can be a good predictor of the biota (Lathouri et al. 2021) and could define management requirements of a practicable number of management units. In Australia, methodologies have been proposed for New South Wales (Brierley et al. 2011; Fryirs et al. 2021) and tropical rivers (Erskine et al. 2005). Butler et al. (2009) introduced a bottom-up typology for assessment of site-based water quality and ecological processes in the Burdekin River. However, in the absence of comprehensive data, a top-down approach is more tractable for broad conservation zoning. This can involve statistical classification of management units (e.g. Olden et al. 2021) but, again, this approach requires substantial data input. Alternatively, generic typologies (e.g. Parsons et al. 2004; The Aquatic Ecosystems Task Group 2012) can be adapted as required. In the Burdekin system, a typology would include riverine, estuarine and floodplain habitats, enhanced by land-use and ecological information (Table 4; see also example in Supplementary material online).
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Parallel to developing this biophysical framework, identification of environmental values is required. The Queensland Government (2019) assesses environmental values of wetlands and river sections by equating conservation value with the level of disturbance, with the following four categories: High Conservation Value, Slightly and Moderately Disturbed (sometimes used collectively), and Highly Disturbed, which include implicit targets for improvement (e.g. Connolly et al. 2011; Godfrey and Pearson 2012). We propose to use the same system for consistency. A separate process identifies water-quality objectives and guidelines (NQ Dry Tropics 2016b; Newham et al. 2017). Both approaches recognise that even with the lowest rating, systems may retain some ecological values; that is, disturbance and conservation value are not mutually exclusive. We suggest that ascribing conservation value by means of expert elicitation (e.g. Hemming et al. 2018), especially when ecological information is patchy, is the simplest way forward. It should be strongly guided by the precautionary principle, to avoid further deterioration of any river section or wetland or the vital connectivity between them. Combination of this with the typology to delineate conservation zones (Fig. 3) would provide clarity on the needs for river and wetland conservation and would facilitate the subsequent stage, which is developing enhanced conservation targets and rehabilitation programs (Linke et al. 2012, 2019; Cattarino et al. 2015; Reis et al. 2019). It would involve such criteria as distinctiveness and representativeness of hydrological, geomorphological and ecological assets and services (biodiversity and processes; see example in Supplementary material). It would highlight potential constraints on land-use change and water management, and would inform catchment planning processes.
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Conclusions
We advocate holistic conservation categorisation of systems to protect remaining values while balancing competing demands (Pusey et al. 2020), with the major goal of ecological sustainability. This process is set in the context of current and future infrastructure and land-use development, and requires an appropriate plan adopted before further development (Productivity Commission 2021). We suggest that all river sections or wetland sites should be given protection levels commensurate with their explicit values, coordinated appropriately to alleviate future negative change (Finlayson et al. 2019). We argue, therefore, not via special pleading for our case study catchment, but to present it as a model for river stewardship generally.
In Australia, there is opportunity to protect against further impact on rivers and wetlands and avoid the mistakes of the past, which have caused loss of ecological values and continuing expensive mitigation. We support the principles of integrated catchment management, adopted in Queensland in 1990, including explicit policy for ecosystem sustainability (Thoms and Sheldon 2000; Davis et al. 2014). To be effective, such a framework requires whole-of-catchment consideration of development, as evident in contemporary EIS requirements (e.g. Queensland Government 2021a). It also needs more systematic information gathering and adaptive management to enhance our suggested approach, ideally under the auspices of a governing body. We agree with the Productivity Commission (2021) that water planning processes need to be upgraded to best practice and involve trade-offs between environmental, economic and social outcomes, recognising the needs of Indigenous peoples, and including a specific focus on climate change. Additionally, river conservation policies need to be made more explicit, as is the case in some jurisdictions (Perry et al. 2021). Management by a body with jurisdictional authority is required, especially because of the wide range of relevant regulations and stakeholders (Queensland Government 2007, 2017a; NQ Dry Tropics 2016b). This might be achieved by providing NRM bodies with stronger legislative and regulatory frameworks for sustainable management or creation of independent management authorities with appropriate powers. Such an approach was embodied in the establishment of the Murray–Darling Management Authority and associated legislation, but its progress has been beset by substantial failures, partly owing to interstate disagreement and vested interests (Beasley 2021; Chen et al. 2021; Ryan et al. 2021). Catchments within states should not have transboundary problems. Australia, as a developed country, is in a position to take a lead in this issue by providing a robust model for sustainable conservation and management of rivers and wetlands. To ensure ‘wise use’ (following the Ramsar Convention; Kumar et al. 2021), it is important that sustaining environmental values, including ecosystem services of direct value to communities, provides the basis for sustainable development.
Data availability
Data sharing is not applicable as no new data were generated or analysed during this study.
Conflicts of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Declaration of funding
This study received no external funding.
Supplementary material
Supplementary material is available online.
Acknowledgements
We thank Jim Tait, Ben Pearson, Niall Connolly, Steve Lewis, Steph Januchowski-Hartley, John Connell and Dane Moulton for helpful discussion and information.
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