The food webs of Australia’s tropical rivers are poorly understood yet provide the foundation for healthy rivers. This project explored how these food webs are structured to support complex river ecosystems. Using a variety of experiments scientists identified the sources of organic matter which kick-start tropical river food webs, which animals exert a strong control in the food chain and how land and water based food webs relate to one another.
Scientific Paper
July 2015
Temporal variation in benthic primary production in streams of the Australian wet–dry tropics (journal article)
Garcia, Pettit, Warfe, Davies, Kyne, Novak, & Douglas. (2015). Temporal variation in benthic primary production in streams of the Australian wet-dry tropics. Hydrobiologia, 760(1), 43-55. doi: 10.1007/s10750-015-2301-6
Scientific Paper
July 2015
Context dependency of top-down and bottom-up effects in a Northern Australian tropical river (journal article)
Garcia, E., Townsend, S., Douglas, M. 2015, 'Context dependency of top-down and bottom-up effects in a Northern Australian tropical river', Freshwater Science, 34, 2, pp. 679-690. doi: 10.1086/681106
Scientific Paper
July 2013
Factors controlling primary productivity in a wet–dry tropical river (journal article)
Faggotter, S., Webster, I., & Burford, M. (n.d.). Factors controlling primary productivity in a wet–dry tropical river. Marine and Freshwater Research, 64(7), 585-598. doi: 10.1071/MF12299
Scientific Paper
July 2012
Fish mediate high food web connectivity in the lower reaches of a tropical floodplain river (scientific paper)
Jardine, T., Pusey, D., Hamilton, B., Pettit, J., Davies, S., Douglas, K., . . . Bunn, P. (2012). Fish mediate high food web connectivity in the lower reaches of a tropical floodplain river. Oecologia, 168(3), 829-838. doi: 10.1007/s00442-011-2148-0
Scientific Paper
July 2012
The response of benthic algal biomass to nutrient addition over a range of current speeds in an oligotrophic river (journal article)
Townsend, S., Garcia, E., & Douglas, M. (2012). The response of benthic algal biomass to nutrient addition over a range of current speeds in an oligotrophic river. Freshwater Science, 31(4), 1233-1243. doi: 10.1899/11-163.1
Scientific Paper
July 2012
Consumer–resource coupling in wet–dry tropical rivers (scientific paper)
Jardine, T., Pettit, N., Warfe, D., Pusey, B., Ward, D., Douglas, M., . . . Bunn, S. (2012). Consumer–resource coupling in wet–dry tropical rivers. Journal of Animal Ecology, 81(2), 310-322. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2656.2011.01925.x
Info Sheet
February 2008
River foodwebs
The project was led by Professor Michael Douglas from Charles Darwin University. Professor Douglas was supported by scientists from Griffith University, University of WA, and the Northern Territory and Western Australian Governments.
