An ephemeral (also called intermittent or seasonal) river or stream does not flow all the time. These systems are prevalent throughout inland Australia as well as in many coastal regions and carry significant flow only during the rainy season or during times of intense, infrequent flooding.  Despite being dry for much of the year, ephemeral streams can make a significant contribution to regional aquatic ecology, providing many species with habitat for foraging or spawning.

Ephemeral streams are challenging to assess properly, both logistically and scientifically. Standard, “off the shelf” aquatic ecology techniques are not appropriate, and it takes a real understanding of these systems to ensure that assessment, monitoring and compliance aspects of projects are properly met.

Aquateco has extensive experience in evaluating the health and water quality of ephemeral waterways, including:

• Identification of appropriate, non standard methods for assessing the baseline health of ephemeral rivers and the potential impacts of projects on these systems.

• Use of univariate and multivariate statistics to properly assess ephemeral biological communities including fish, flora and macroinvertebrates.

• Habitat mapping and assessment of habitat quality.

Environmental consultancies like Aquateco are at the cutting edge with measuring and monitoring changes in the health of ephemeral waterways.

Our people have led or been senior contributors to the following ephemeral stream projects:

 

• Baseline Aquatic Ecology Assessments in Semi-Arid Systems: Southern Queensland.

• Aquatic Ecology Risk Assessment for Industrial Project: Central Queensland Coast.

• Potential Impacts of Dredging Operations on Seasonal Barramundi Habitat: Northern Territory.

• Baseline Aquatic Ecology Surveys for Large Scale Development: Central Queensland.

• Aquatic Ecology Impact Assessments: Multiple sites across the state of Queensland.