Long-term annual monitoring of Ruppia tuberosa in the Southern Coorong in South Australia is undertaken by the University of Adelaide. The monitoring commenced in 1998 focusing on winter sampling, and it was extended in 2013 to include summer sampling.
R. tuberosa is a native submerged aquatic plant, commonly known as tuberous sea tassel. It provides habitat and food for aquatic invertebrates, fish and herbivorous waterbirds in the Coorong. The LLCMM region, which includes the Coorong, is a Ramsar-listed wetland of international importance. It is also one of the icon sites under The Living Murray program. The condition of the LLCMM region, and aquatic native vegetation recruitment and populations, have been identified as targets against which to assess progress towards achieving the objectives of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. The Ruppia monitoring data and findings form part of the ecological information used for this assessment.
The 2016-17 monitoring program was funded by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA). Prior to 2016-17, the program was funded by the MDBA, South Australia’s Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources (DEWNR), Earthwatch Australia and the University of Adelaide in different years
The MDBA has made the R. tuberosa database and related resources publicly available on data.gov.au as part of its commitment to the Australian Government policy on public data and information. The terms and conditions for using the data and related resources from this website can be found at https://www.data.gov.au/about.