Investigating riverine ecology with trail cameras
Our team is investigating the influence of water availability on riverine vegetation response and wildlife abundance and diversity.
Trail cameras – an effective monitoring tool?
A Brown Treecreeper at a Black Box site.
Can trail cameras be used as an effective tool for monitoring floodplain and riparian vegetation responses and vertebrate biodiversity to altered hydrology at the same time? Trail cameras are an inexpensive tool available to researchers to collect field data. They complement existing monitoring methods such as satellite remote-sensing and fauna surveys, adding long-term, real-time real-world site-specific information which is valuable to environmental managers.
For vegetation, we monitor tree and groundcover response to altered water availability, including canopy greenness, density and flowering events. For wildlife, we investigate abundance and diversity in different habitats to better understand floodplain wildlife ecology and water availability.
A long-term geographically diverse monitoring plan
Curious Emu at a Black Box site
In early 2020 we set up trail cameras across a 200km stretch of the River Murray from Mildura (Victoria) to Loxton (South Australia) to simultaneously monitor floodplain vegetation and wildlife. We selected a variety of National Park and private property sites being used as part of a wider study on floodplain tree water-use (evapotranspiration) in the Murray-Darling Basin. The cameras operated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, collecting an image every 3 hours (time-lapse) and whenever an animal passed by (motion-sense). Camera images were downloaded on-site every few months and processed back in the office.
The dataset covers the La Nina conditions and flooding of 2021-2023, providing valuable pre-flood, flood and post-flood images. Our time-lapse imagery allows us to create custom videos of specific events such as flooding at any site.
We have several collaborators and partners for this and the over-arching evapotranspiration project, including the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder, SA Water and the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries.
What we’ve seen so far
Since 2020, we have gathered thousands of wildlife, vegetation and flooding images from 13 sites across the riverine system. For vegetation, we have piloted use of our imagery to refine satellite-based predictive models of vegetation, with more analysis to follow. For wildlife, we observed over 2500 animals from more than 50 species, from feral and native mammals (including bats), to waterbirds, woodland birds and reptiles. Trends are emerging for certain animal types, with feral mammals, macropods, woodland birds and bats appearing to prefer drier floodplain woodland areas such as Black Box (Eucalyptus largiflorens) and waterbirds occurring mostly in wetter riparian River Red Gum (E. camaldulensis) habitats especially when surface water (i.e. flooding) is present. The project is ongoing, with new images collected every day.
A feral goat at a River Red Gum and Lignum site.
A feral pig at a River Red Gum site.
Red Kangaroo at a Black Box site.
A microbat, possibly of the Mormoptera genus, at a River Red Gum site.
An Australian Pelican (foreground) and Australian White Ibis and Straw-necked Ibis (background) at a flooded Lignum site.
A Red Fox at a River Red Gum and Lignum (Duma florulenta) site.
Emus at a Black Box site.
Adult and juvenile Black Swans at a flooded Lignum site.
A Rainbow Bee-eater at a Black Box site.
Time-lapse: flooding of Black Box trees in a river ecosystem
Ever wondered how flooding impacts riverine ecosystems? Watch the time-lapse below, captured by trail cameras, to observe the changes to the landscape as water floods over time.
Black Box flooding time-lapse.
Find out more
- Doody TM, Gao S, Vervoort W, Pritchard JL, Davies MJ, Nolan M, Nagler P. 2023. A river basin scale spatial model to advance understanding of riverine tree response to hydrological management. Journal of Environmental Management, 332, 117393.
- Davies MJ, Doody TM, Gao S, Nolan, M 2023 Using trail cameras to monitor floodplain vegetation and wildlife. CSIRO Technical Report. Using trail cameras to monitor floodplain vegetation and wildlife – for MWE webpage.pdf (please note that this Report was prepared from the first three years of the study yet the web page article combines this with new data)
