Dutton River

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Introduction

The Dutton River is a small system on the Eyre Peninsula which flows east into the Spencer Gulf. The stream is surrounded by farmland used for grazing and crops. Elevated turbidity and nutrient levels are the most likely water quality problems. As the Dutton River is a naturally saline stream, bank vegetation is dominated by salt tolerant plants such as samphires. >> Map (537KB PDF)

Water quality assessment

Water quality is assessed as being in good, moderate or poor condition by interpreting water chemistry data in the context of protecting environmental values. >> More

Ecological health is assessed in spring and autumn. We use macroinvertebrates for this purpose because they provide a relatively simple way to assess the health of an aquatic ecosystem. >> More

Water chemistry is measured each month (or every 3 months in remote locations). We measure chemical indicators because when they reach a certain level they can cause stress or toxicity to animals and plants in an ecosystem. Some indicators can also indicate if the water is suitable for drinking water or for activities such as swimming. >> More

Ecological health

We collect two samples of macroinvertebrates, one from riffle (or flowing water) habitat and one from edge (still water) habitat. The diversity of the macroinvertebrate community is used to describe ecological health as being in good, moderate or poor condition.

Go here to find out how we classify ecological health in streams.

Ecological health assessment for June 2006

Habitat	Ecological health
Edge	Moderate
Riffle	Habitat not present

The Dutton River is a small highly saline stream draining cleared agricultural land on Eyre Peninsula. Edge habitats are always present as isolated in-stream pools and to date no riffle habitat has been present since monitoring began at this site in 2003.

The ecological health of the edge habitat was rated moderate in autumn 2006, consistent with previous results for this site. The high salt concentration (about 36,000 mg/L; equivalent to seawater salinity) limits the fauna to a range of dipteran (fly) larvae and hydrophilid beetles that are tolerant of saline waters and able to feed on the filamentous algae and other invertebrates present in such waters. The most common macroinvertebrates were the non-biting midge Tanytarsus barbitarsus, biting midge larvae Culicoides species and soldierfly larvae from the family Stratiomyidae. The only uncommon species collected from the site was the saline tolerant hydrophilid beetle Laccobius zeitzi.

Download ecological health data

• All the macroinvertebrate data for the Dutton River (4KB CSV)

Water chemistry

The indicators that are measured in the Dutton River are nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), turbidity and salinity. The concentration of these indicators is used to classify the water chemistry as being in good, moderate or poor condition, according to the needs of aquatic ecosystem protection.

Go here to find out how we organise and classify the chemistry data.

Water chemistry classification for April to September 2006

Indicator	Classification
Oxidised Nitrogen	Good
Total Nitrogen	Poor
Soluble Phosphorus	Good
Total Phosphorus	Poor
Turbidity	Good

The total phosphorus and total nitrogen were likely to be bound up within phytoplankton (green algae), which are often observed in the Dutton River. The phytoplankton and abundant floating algal mats tend to keep the soluble nutrients (oxidised nitrogen and soluble phosphorus) at low concentrations, using these nutrients to support algal growth. The salinity (i.e. total dissolved solids) in the Dutton River is naturally very high because of groundwater inflows and reduced surface flows.

>> Archived results

Download water chemistry graphs

• Oxidised nitrogen in the Dutton River
  
• Total nitrogen in the Dutton River
  
• Total phosphorus in the Dutton River
  
• Soluble phosphorus in the Dutton River
  
• Turbidity in the Dutton River
  
• Salinity in the Dutton River

Download raw chemistry data

• All chemistry data for the Dutton River

What is being done to improve the condition of South Australian rivers and streams

Efforts to improve the condition of South Australia's rivers and streams are being driven by various government agencies, primarily:

The Environment Protection Authority
The Department of Water, Land and Biodiversity Conservation
Natural Resource Management Boards
Department for Environment and Heritage (SA)

Collaborative projects and programs being run by these agencies are based on the protection of environmental values, as explained in the National Water Quality Management Strategy. >> More

This page was last modified 25-09-2007