of flooding for habitats (lakes, swamps) used by waterbird communities but these events are highly variable. The Lake Eyre Basin is widely regarded as one of the few desert river systems in the world without significant development () and as a result its ecosystems should be in good condition. Governments have implemented a Lake Eyre Basin Rivers Assessment (LEBRA) to assess the condition of the freshwater ecosystems of the Lake Eyre Basin. In this rivers assessment, all freshwater ecosystems dependent on surface water flows are considered. Unfortunately relatively few long-term biological data exist for such an assessment, particularly over a large part of the basin. This contrasts rainfall and flow data but even these are not so well represented (see Kennard et al. ()). One of the few long-term relevant data sets is the aerial survey of waterbirds in eastern Australia which extends across about half of the Lake Eyre Basin, surveying about 10% of this area ((, ); Fig. 1). This project used data collected from the aerial waterbird survey of eastern Australia over a long period (1983-2011,(, )), during which waterbird species and their total abundance were surveyed each year (Fig. 1). These waterbird data represent one of the longest data sets available for assessing the health of the rivers of the Lake Eyre Basin, contributing to the Lake Eyre Basin Rivers Assessment. The project focused on assessment at different spatial scales: the Basin (area where data exist) and individual wetlands. Further, the waterbird community were examined at the entire community level, abundance and species richness, functional groups (e.g. piscivores) and individual species. Analyses of functional groups provided understanding of potential changes in relation to other biota (e.g. fish and piscivores). We also modelled changes in waterbird communities in relation to time, river flows, rainfall, wetland area and the SOI index. Objectives There were five original objectives (see below) but scale of analyses was not separated out in these objectives making it difficult to clearly differentiate and so we have further disaggregated these scales so that they refer specifically to particular analyses done and the structure of this report (see below). Original objectives
of flooding for habitats (lakes, swamps) used by waterbird communities but these events are highly variable. The Lake Eyre Basin is widely regarded as one of the few desert river systems in the world without significant development () and as a result its ecosystems should be in good condition. Governments have implemented a Lake Eyre Basin Rivers Assessment (LEBRA) to assess the condition of the freshwater ecosystems of the Lake Eyre Basin. In this rivers assessment, all freshwater ecosystems dependent on surface water flows are considered. Unfortunately relatively few long-term biological data exist for such an assessment, particularly over a large part of the basin. This contrasts rainfall and flow data but even these are not so well represented (see Kennard et al. ()). One of the few long-term relevant data sets is the aerial survey of waterbirds in eastern Australia which extends across about half of the Lake Eyre Basin, surveying about 10% of this area ((, ); Fig. 1). This project used data collected from the aerial waterbird survey of eastern Australia over a long period (1983-2011,(, )), during which waterbird species and their total abundance were surveyed each year (Fig. 1). These waterbird data represent one of the longest data sets available for assessing the health of the rivers of the Lake Eyre Basin, contributing to the Lake Eyre Basin Rivers Assessment. The project focused on assessment at different spatial scales: the Basin (area where data exist) and individual wetlands. Further, the waterbird community were examined at the entire community level, abundance and species richness, functional groups (e.g. piscivores) and individual species. Analyses of functional groups provided understanding of potential changes in relation to other biota (e.g. fish and piscivores). We also modelled changes in waterbird communities in relation to time, river flows, rainfall, wetland area and the SOI index. Objectives There were five original objectives (see below) but scale of analyses was not separated out in these objectives making it difficult to clearly differentiate and so we have further disaggregated these scales so that they refer specifically to particular analyses done and the structure of this report (see below). Original objectives
waterbirds-lake-eyre-basin-condition-assessment-report.docx