Abstract
The environment is being increasingly recognized as a legitimate user of water. However, tension between environmental and consumptive uses remains and environmental water allocations may be subject to legal challenge. Current predictions of ecological response to altered flow regimes are not sufficiently transparent or robust to withstand such challenges. We review the use of causal criteria analysis to systematically review ecological responses to changes in flow regimes. Causal criteria analysis provides a method to assess the evidence for and against cause-effect hypotheses. Relationships supported by sufficient evidence can inform transparent and robust environmental flow recommendations. The use of causal criteria analysis in environmental science has been facilitated by the development of the Eco Evidence method and software—a standardized approach for synthesizing evidence from the scientific literature. Eco Evidence has thus far been used to assess the evidence concerning responses of vegetation, fish, macroinvertebrates, and floodplain geomorphology to changes in flow regime, and provides a robust and transparent assessment of this evidence. There is a growing movement internationally to shift from experience-based to evidence-based methods in environmental science and management. The research presented here is at the leading edge of a fundamental change in the way environmental scientists use evidence.
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Acknowledgments
We thank the authors of the case studies that appear in this paper. As the early adopters of the Eco Evidence method, they have been instrumental in its improvement and uptake. We also thank researchers involved in the early development of the Eco Evidence method and software (Peter Liston, James Mugodo, Gerry Quinn, Peter Cottingham, Leon Metzeling, Stephen Perris, David Robinson, David Tiller, Glen Wilson, Gail Ransom, and Sam Silva), our ‘collaborators in evidence’ from the USA and Europe, and the many eWater staff and students who were involved in product testing. The development of Eco Evidence has been funded by the eWater Cooperative Research Centre and Cooperative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology. This review was funded by Australian Research Council linkage project LP100200170.
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Richard H. Norris deceased
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This file contains a screen shot from each of the Eco Evidence Database (Fig. 1) and Eco Evidence Analyser (Fig. 2). Free access to the software is available through www.toolkit.net.au/tools/eco-evidence. (PDF 180 kb)
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Webb, J.A., Nichols, S.J., Norris, R.H. et al. Ecological Responses to Flow Alteration: Assessing Causal Relationships with Eco Evidence. Wetlands 32, 203–213 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-011-0249-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-011-0249-5