Ben Woodward
Griffith School of Environment

Griffith University, Nathan Qld 4111

E: b.woodward@griffith.edu.au

Mobilisation of organic carbon in wetted terrestrial environments and its effects upon floodplain soil microbial community function and structure.

This project focuses on the role that wetting of riparian litter may play in stimulating riverine food webs. It proposes that those flow rules that protect a proportion of freshes and high flows will result in more frequent wetting of river banks, benches and, in some cases, floodplains than would otherwise occur. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is needed in aquatic systems such as rivers to support aquatic food chains from the bottom up (bacterial growth to organisms higher in the food chain). The amount of DOC entering rivers and being wetted has been reduced due to river regulation, minimising linkages with many in-channel benches and adjacent floodplains where terrestrial material accumulates. Environmental flows may be able to increase the amount of allochthonous DOC entering river environments by transporting DOC associated with benches and flood plains to the river.