Research interests

• Effects of anthropogenic disturbances on marine ecosystems
• Sediment biogeochemistry
• Ecology of marine pest invasions
• Soft sediment community ecology

Research Project

Importance of environmental flows to estuarine and inshore coastal ecosystems

The importance of quantifying the impacts of land-based anthropogenic activities on freshwater flows and consequential effects on downstream estuarine and coastal water environments has been increasingly recognized in recent years. Nevertheless, extraction of freshwater for agriculture, town water supplies etc is increasing in many rivers across Australia . The ecological effects on estuaries and estuarine aquaculture and fishing industries of changing flow regimes is largely unknown in Tasmania, and Australia generally, and there is an urgent need to quantify the freshwater flow requirements essential to estuarine health and aquaculture production. Similarly, there is limited information on the economic value of freshwater flows into estuaries. Consequently, there is a need to compare the economic efficiency of allocation of freshwater to land-based agricultural production with estuarine based shellfish farming and ecosystem goods and services.

My role is to determine freshwater flow regimes that are essential to the maintenance and/or enhancement of estuarine function, productivity and ecosystem health, using the Little Swanport (LSP) catchment in Tasmania as a case study. This includes continued collection of environmental data under different flows and the development of an estuarine model to predict the effects of different flow regimes. This work will be run in conjunction with an assessment of the value of water to different uses across the catchment and the develop a set of economic accounts and an economic water evaluation framework lead by Prof. Tor Hundloe from the University of Queensland. Working closely with State Government researchers and managers this work will play a significant role in the development of methodologies for assessment of environmental water requirements that can be utilized in the development of Water Management Plans for Tasmania .

Selected publications:

O'Brien A. L., Ross D. J. , Keough M. J. ( in press ) Effects of the physical structure of an introduced polychaete, Sabella spallanzanii on macrofauna in soft sediments. Marine and Freshwater Research

Macreadie P. I., Ross D. J. , Longmore A.R., Keough M. J. ( in press ) Measuring sediment denitrification. Marine Ecology Progress Series

Ross D. J. , Johnson C. J., Hewitt C. L. ( in press ). Abundance of the introduced seastar, Asterias amurensis , and spatial variability in soft sediment assemblages in SE Tasmania : Clear correlations but complex interpretation. Estuarine Coastal and Shelf Science

Ross D. J. , Johnson C. R., Hewitt C. L., Ruiz G. M. (2004) Interaction and impacts of two introduced species on a soft-sediment marine assemblage in SE Tasmania. Marine Biology 144:747-756

Ross D. J. , Johnson C. J., Hewitt C. L. ( 2003 ). Assessing the ecological impacts of an introduced predator: the importance of multiple methods. Biological Invasions 5: 3-21.

Ross D. J. , Johnson C. J., Hewitt C. L. ( 2003 ). Variability in the impact of an introduced predator ( Asterias amurensis : Asteroidea) on soft sediment marine assemblages . Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 288: 257-278.

Ross D. J. , Johnson C. J., Hewitt C. L. ( 2002 ). Impact of the introduced seastar Asterias amurensis on survivorship of juvenile commercial bivalves Fulvia tenuicostata . Marine Ecology Progress Series 241: 99-112