Changes to the natural flow regime can have profound consequences to the ecology and function of rivers, their associated floodplain wetlands, and for the native flora and fauna. In northern Australia, these systems are characterised by seasonal rainfall patterns of wet and dry cycles, to which the rich biodiversity is adapted. Most river catchments in northern Australia have only low levels of development and have largely unmodified flow regimes.
Northern Australia is continuing to see economic development, including in the agriculture and aquaculture sector. To support this development, the utilisation of water resources in the form of infrastructure and extraction projects, has the possibility to alter these river systems.
Understanding the possible effects that a potential land and water resource development has on a natural system allows for the assessment of risks and the prioritisation of management actions to minimise the impact. While there are many methods available to assess the impact that an altered hydrological regime has on an individual species or habitat, understanding the interactions between, and the secondary impacts on, individual species and habitats, is a non-trivial but important task.
Here we discuss the systematic design principles of building conceptual models for species and habitats based on a common structure of threat, driver, effect, and outcome. We will then explore ways of combining these models to facilitate the understanding of the interactions between species and habitats to see the system as a whole, rather than just the sum of its parts.