Effects on aquatic habitat and fish communities, particularly in the Macdonald Valley and Wollombi Brook area, Australia

Brief Description               Many scholars and advocates identified changing climate as a factor in substantial shifts in distribution and in timing of reproduction in wildlife and fish populations. Fish and wildlife responses to climate change depend on feedbacks among climate, land use, land cover, hydrology, and biodiversity. Based on various scientific studies on the effects of climate change to wildlife and fisheries, it was shown that the effects of climate change on fish will be substantial with even moderate warming but will also vary across the species range. Moreover, wildlife and fish are early barometers of climate and habitat change, and threatened and engendered species are likely to be especially sensitive to change and perturbations. Background             The Australian coastal economic fishing zone is the third largest in the world. But climate change is already affecting Australian marine life and consequently Australian fisheries and aquaculture. While climate change has a broad footprint across the globe, the response of aquatic ecological systems to climate change will differ greatly across regions. This heterogeneity is brought about by the fact that habitats vary over small distances and different habitats filter the climate signal differently.             Further, climate change may strongly modify biogenic habitats such as those formed by assemblages including mangroves, tropical corals, kelps, and cold water corals. Dominant producer groups like phyto and zooplankton will have repercussions throughout the aquatic food web. The vulnerability of fishes to climate change is dependent on the nature of the predicted change as well as the nature of the fishery and its species and habitats. Objectives               The objectives of this study focus on various aspects of the effects of climate change on aquatic habitat and fish communities especially in Macdonald Valley and Wollombi Brook area in Australia. It will specifically analyze various accounts on how climate change changes the condition of water or aquatic formation that eventually brought a significant extinction and migration of some aquatic species. Moreover, further analysis on fish communities will be given ample discussion on how it affects their economic condition and fish production. Methodology             In order to determine the condition of fisheries and aquatic habitat of certain aquatic place like in Wallombi Brook and Macdonald Valley, three approaches are to be used: predicting changes in the availability of thermal habitat by evaluating changes in the thermal structure of lakes and streams, predicting effects of temperature changes in physiological processes, and predicting impact of changes in physical habitat features to important life history stages such as migration period and spawning. Moreover, using these approaches will not sufficiently strong claim and data, hence, the use of different instruments such as data gathering, field report, experimentation and interviews will help the study to trace further the root cause of the impact of climate change on aquatic habitat and fish communities.     Timetable               This study will take a further trance after this proposal will be approved. Since, this study will go under the scrutiny of authorized professionals, if and when this will pass the requirement for further study, in two months time this research will take off on gathering relevant and related data and information necessary for analysis, the following (3) months, will be used for gathering field data report, conducting interviews with authorized personages on the field of study, and the rest of the academic year will be devoted to analysis of data, results of experiments,  field reports, and interviews in preparation for presentation and evaluation of the panel. Expected Outcomes               This study seeks to accomplish towards the end of the academic year with the task of attaining the expected results coming from different data gathering and analysis. These outcomes may go against the expected ones due to uncontrollable variables along the research process yet, the researcher still expected outcomes based on prediction and the way it handles the whole course of research. The effect of climate change significantly produces an adverse upshot to the aquatic habitat and fish communities. The aquatic habitat needs the attention of proper authorities to create effective programs for rehabilitation while fish communities should help support the preservation of aquatic resources within their vicinity like Macdonal Valley and Wollombi Brook in order to sustain their productivity and will not adversely affect their economic condition.