ECOS

We’re dusting off old tide records, some dating back to the late 19th century, in a project to digitise these old hard-copy records so the data they contain can be used to analyse how extreme sea levels in Australia have changed over time.

While knowledge of water availability is key to managing Murray-Darling Basin water resources, a commensurate understanding of ecosystem ecological response to flow regulation is also required to aid environmental management.

Scientists have been naming species after well-known people since the 18th century, often in a bid for publicity. But the issue deserves attention – some 400,000 Australian species are yet to be described.

There’s an upside to the carbon-rich, black water that sometimes flows off the floodplains and into the rivers of the Murray–Darling Basin.

Elvis, Eric, Gracy – these ibis and spoonbill are telling their own journeying stories thanks to satellite tracking. Along with scientists on the ground monitoring populations and their movements, research will help drive effective environmental water management decisions.

Computer models will inform the delivery of Murray-Darling environmental waters to restore the flows that support thriving native fish populations.

CSIRO scientists have developed new tools to help control two feral pests wrecking havoc above and below the waters of the Murray-Darling Basin: the willow tree and the carp.

Understanding human impact on the water cycle is a tricky business – one clue is to be found in evapotranspiration. Novel use of satellite data is helping us measure something we can’t see.

Three quarters of the species that live in Australia don’t exist anywhere else in the world. We’re digitisation our collections to make the data easily available to have bigger impacts in areas like conservation, biosecurity and climate change.