Journal article
Ecological responses to flow alteration: Assessing causal relationships with eco evidence
JA Webb, SJ Nichols, RH Norris, MJ Stewardson, SR Wealands, P Lea
Wetlands | Published : 2012
Abstract
The environment is being increasingly recognized as a legitimate user of water. However, tension between environmental and consumptive uses remains and environmental water allocations may be subject to legal challenge. Current predictions of ecological response to altered flow regimes are not sufficiently transparent or robust to withstand such challenges. We review the use of causal criteria analysis to systematically review ecological responses to changes in flow regimes. Causal criteria analysis provides a method to assess the evidence for and against causeeffect hypotheses. Relationships supported by sufficient evidence can inform transparent and robust environmental flow recommendations..
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Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
We thank the authors of the case studies that appear in this paper. As the early adopters of the Eco Evidence method, they have been instrumental in its improvement and uptake. We also thank researchers involved in the early development of the Eco Evidence method and software (Peter Liston, James Mugodo, Gerry Quinn, Peter Cottingham, Leon Metzeling, Stephen Perris, David Robinson, David Tiller, Glen Wilson, Gail Ransom, and Sam Silva), our 'collaborators in evidence' from the USA and Europe, and the many eWater staff and students who were involved in product testing. The development of Eco Evidence has been funded by the eWater Cooperative Research Centre and Cooperative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology. This review was funded by Australian Research Council linkage project LP100200170.