Warrego-Darling 2019-20 Annual Report Appendix C Food webs

The production and transfer of energy within an ecosystem (ecosystem energetics) is a key functional process, fundamental to determining population and community structure and system productivity. The production and transfer of energy in an ecosystem begins with nutrient and light availability driving primary production, in turn creating basal resources that are transferred along a myriad of pathways to higher order consumers. Water for the environment influences Water Quality (nutrients, temperature, light, and salinity), which in turn can regulate rates of Metabolism and productivity (carbon and energy availability) and this energy fuels the trophic carrying capacity of Food webs (microinvertebrates and macroinvertebrates) that support fish and waterbird populations. This chapter integrates these fundamental ecosystem processes, linking environmental watering actions to water quality, energy production and understanding the potential food web responses within key habitats of the Junction of the Warrego and Darling rivers Selected Area (Warrego-Darling Selected Area, Selected Area).