What we don't know about drought
Australia is the most drought-prone continent on earth with droughts occurring for 82 of the 150 years since reliable record-keeping began in 1860. Despite this, significant gaps exist in our understanding of the effects of these ‘creeping disasters’ on our waterways and in our ability to manage these effects.
Professor Sam Lake, a freshwater ecologist in Monash University’s School of Biological Sciences, has spent the last eight years reviewing the existing research on the impacts of drought on freshwater streams and rivers.
His findings have now been published as Drought and Aquatic Ecosystems: Effects and Responses.
“Really, it’s disappointing, that we have such a poor understanding of what happens to fresh water bodies during drought,” said Professor Lake.
“There’s a lot more we need to know. The reaction of freshwater systems to drought is context-dependent. For example, a lake is going to react differently to a river during drought and we need understand these differences as these environments are both ecologically important and potentially fragile.”
Professor Lake said the necessarily long-term nature of research to understand drought has led to the scarcity of information.
“You need data from prior to the drought, during the drought and after the drought has broken. For example, the last drought in Australia lasted ten years, so to comprehensively study its effects and any recovery, you’re talking about very long-term research projects.
“Most research is funded for three years or so, hence there’s a lack of good data available on long-term phenomena such as drought. For the book, I’ve developed an overall understanding from the rather numerous short-term studies – threading together snippets of research.”
“We know that in economic, environmental and social terms, droughts can have long-term destructive impacts. It’s frustrating that we’re not investing more in better understanding the ecology of this very hazardous phenomenon.”
The book is intended as a resource for ecologists and people working in water management; however, Professor Lake’s findings have implications for the wider community.
“If we better understand the effects of droughts, we can better manage the impacts on natural ecosystems and the flow-on societal effects.”
Drought and Aquatic Ecosystems: Effects and Responses.is available through Wiley-Blackwell.