Celebrating Our Catchment

by umcn_editor
October 19, 2020November 10, 2020

This October-November-December, we are celebrating Resilience and Recovery in the Upper Murrumbidgee Catchment.

Executive Meeting

by umcn_editor
October 7, 2020October 15, 2020

Wednesday 7th October 2020 Attendance by invitation. UMCN hold quarterly meetings with our Executive Committee which is comprised of member-elected individuals from community groups, businesses,… Read More »Executive Meeting

Fire impacts in the Upper Murrumbidgee Catchment

by umcn_editor
September 22, 2020November 10, 2020

This post fire scene is in the Badja catchment north-east of Cooma. It was one of the most pristine catchments in the Upper Murrumbidgee.

UMCN Website Launch 8th October 2020

by umcn_editor
September 16, 2020October 19, 2020

General Meeting

by umcn_editor
September 2, 2020October 15, 2020

Wednesday 2nd September 2020 11.00am – 12.30pm UMCN hold quarterly general meetings which are open to all members and community. This meeting includes a presentation… Read More »General Meeting

Upper Murrumbidgee Catchment Network

Oh my! Look at this cutie!

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Listen in on some exciting adventures trekking in Pakistan at NPAs webinar next Thursday.

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Upper Murrumbidgee Catchment Network

Some wombat love to brighten your Wednesday.

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Upper Murrumbidgee Catchment Network

Postdoc position in Germany.

The Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) invites applications for a postdoc position in stream ecology.

https://karriere-igb.softgarden.io/job/8858721/Postdoc-Position-in-Stream-Ecology-m-f-d-?jobDbPVId=24241941&l=de

Postdoc Position in Stream Ecology (m/f/d) at Leibniz-Institut für Gewässerökologie und Binnenfischerei

We're looking for: Postdoc Position in Stream Ecology (m/f/d) (Full Time) • Zur alten Fischerhütte 2, 16775 Stechlin, Deutschland

karriere-igb.softgarden.io

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Upper Murrumbidgee Catchment Network

Welcome to Waterbug Monday!

Diving beetles have hairy paddle-shaped legs to assist their mobility in water.

As previously mentioned on Waterbug Monday, diving beetle larvae and adults (pictured here) are predatory. Some species have even evolved specialised mouthparts to consume their favourite foods, as shown is this recent study:

Hayashi, Masakazu and Ohba, Shin-Ya, ‘Mouth Morphology of the Diving Beetle Hyphydrus Japonicus (Dytiscidae: Hydroporinae) Is Specialized for Predation on Seed Shrimps’ (2018) 125(2) Biological journal of the Linnean Society 315

Photo credit: Claire Sives

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Upper Murrumbidgee Catchment Network

Two PhD opportunities at the University of Canberra.

Australian Freshwater Sciences Society

*PhD Opportunities*
We offer two exciting opportunities for PhD candidates to join the Centre for Applied Water Science in the Institute for Applied Ecology at the University of Canberra to examine the response of river food webs to variation in streamflow. The scholarships are funded by the Australian Research Council and the University of Canberra.

Project description:
Human activities have greatly altered the magnitude and timing of flow in rivers worldwide. This has substantial impacts on river ecosystems because flow mediates the physical and chemical environment, regulates connectivity to upstream and floodplain habitats, and supports the life cycle of organisms. The overall project aims to build new knowledge around how changes in flow affect the structure and function of river food webs. The expected outcome of this project is an enhanced capacity to predict the ecological consequences of water management scenarios. This will be achieved through a combination of field work (focused on the Lachlan River system in central NSW) and laboratory experiments.

PhD project 1: Effect of flow variation on benthic invertebrate or zooplankton communities. Invertebrates perform critical ecosystem processes, but their environmental flow responses have been understudied compared other taxa. This PhD candidate will perform field sampling and laboratory experiments to better understand invertebrate responses to flow.

Questions may include:
How does flow and flow history affect community composition?
How do invertebrate communities respond to primary productivity pulses and what are the time lags?
How does flow affect invertebrate-mediated ecosystem functions (e.g. secondary production, leaf litter decomposition)?
PhD project 2: Effect of flow variation on food-web structure.

We currently do not have a robust understanding of how the energy sources of consumers such as fish change through time and in response to flow events. This PhD candidate will characterise the structure of the river food webs by collecting samples of fish, invertebrates, and their potential food items.

Questions may include:
What is the aquatic food web structure of the Lachlan River and how does it vary spatially and temporally?
How does flow and flow history alter the major energy sources of consumers?
How do patterns of material cycling and food-web energy fluxes at short time scales (e.g. daily to weekly) during an environmental flow event?

Research environment:
The position is based at the Centre for Applied Water Science (CAWS) within the Institute for Applied Ecology (IAE) at the University of Canberra. The centre has strengths in basic and applied research to address complex environmental problems. Resources for the project include field vehicles, field equipment and experimental flumes at the University of Canberra. The project team will work in close collaboration with researchers at CSIRO Land and Water. The IAE typically has a cohort of 20-30 PhD students and maintains a program of graduate seminars, social events and administrative support to enhance the PhD experience. The Australian PhD is a 3.5 year program which is largely research, with graduate training opportunities rather than extensive formal coursework.

The candidates will be supervised by the project lead Dr Darren Giling (University of Canberra/CSIRO) and co-supervised by Prof. LeRoy Poff (Colorado State University, USA), Prof. Ross Thompson (University of Canberra), and Dr Paul McInerney (CSIRO).

Eligibility:
To be eligible, the applicant must have a first-class Honours degree or four years of undergraduate study in a relevant field coupled with a publication record to establish first class equivalence, and personal attributes conducive to working constructively and productively as part of research team. Candidates may also be considered if they have a research-focussed Masters degree or equivalent in a relevant field. Experience in laboratory experiments involving animals, skills in animal identification, statistical analyses, and a willingness to conduct fieldwork in remote locations are also desirable.

Scholarship:
A three-year scholarship is available (AUD$27,609 per annum full-time).

Application instructions:
Interested individuals should submit their application by email to Dr Darren Giling (darren.giling@canberra.edu.au). Please attach a single PDF file with a 1 page statement on which project you would like to be considered for and why you are interested, a curriculum vitae, transcripts and the names and contact information of 3 referees.

Evaluation of the applications will begin in March 2021, with an anticipated start date in August 2021. Please submit your application by 28th February 2021.

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News

News

Celebrating Our Catchment

Executive Meeting

Fire impacts in the Upper Murrumbidgee Catchment

UMCN Website Launch 8th October 2020

General Meeting