Deficiencies in our understanding of the hydro-ecology of several native Australian fish: a rapid evidence synthesis

Abstract

Environmental flows aim to mitigate the impacts of modification of riverine flow regimes by restoring components of the natural flow regime. Explicit evidence-based cause-effect relationships between flow regimes and fish responses are required for defensible flow recommendations. However, flow recommendations are typically based on expert opinion rather than a rigorous test of the available evidence. We used rapid evidence synthesis to systematically review the literature on responses of several native Australian fish to flow-related and other important environmental variables, and tested 13 explicit hypotheses. The hypotheses were related to the condition, reproduction and survival of pygm..