Research Interests/Projects

Professor Paul Boon has been working on wetland systems for the past 25 years, including studies on nutrient cycling in coastal brackish-water wetlands, the ecology and management of freshwater wetlands, floodplains and riparian corridors along the Murray and Darling Rivers and, more recently, the provision of environmental water for natural and degraded wetland systems in south-eastern Australia.

His R&D work has been undertaken in the Murray-Darling Basin, the south-east of South Australia (Coorong and Bakers-Watervalley Range watercourses), north-western Victoria (Mallee and Wimmera regions), central Victoria (Goulburn River) and the Gippsland region (Lake Wellington, Latrobe and Avon Rivers).

Paul currently leads a multi-disciplinary team of researchers focussed on determining the ecological values of Ramsar-listed wetlands in the Gippsland Lakes complex of south-eastern Victoria and trialing a range of rehabilitation strategies to improve the ecological, conservation and amenity values of these sites.

Paul has published 75 papers in the scientific literature on the ecology and management of aquatic systems and presented over 165 papers at scientific and natural-resource management agencies. He has held editorial positions for the international journals Marine and Freshwater Research and Lakes and Reservoirs: Research and Management and been a key member is a number of State and Federal wetland reviews, technical advisory panels and strategy formulations.

His two current R&D projects are:

· “Wetland rehabilitation: rehabilitation of wetlands degraded by multiple stressors - altered water regime, salinity, and exotic species” (2002-2006). Client: Land & Water Australia, in partnership with Department of Sustainability and Environment, Parks Victoria, and the West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority. Paul heads this large ($800,000+) R&D project examining the condition and rehabilitation of Ramsar-listed wetlands in the Gippsland region, focussing on Dowd and Clydebank Morasses. These wetlands are affected by an inappropriate water regime, salinisation, soil acidification, nutrient enrichment and noxious fish species (eg carp). The ecological condition is determined with a range of on-ground assessments coupled with remote-sensing approaches (historical aerial photography and satellite imagery). Rehabilitation trials use landscape-scale hydrological manipulations and community-based revegetation approaches.

· “Development of indicators and methods for monitoring impacts of tourism on aquatic ecosystem health” (2004-2007). Client: CRC for Sustainable Tourism. Paul is the Principal Investigator in this project, together with Professor Angela Arthington and Dr Wade Hadwen from Griffith University, aimed at developing and trialing a range of environmental indicators in south-east Queensland, northern New South Wales and eastern Victoria to determine the effect of recreation on rivers, lakes and wetlands.

Selected Papers

Raulings E, Roache M, Morris K, Bailey PC & Boon PI (submitted). Woody plant encrochment in a near-permanently flooded wetland in the Gippsland Lakes, Australia. Australian Journal of Botany

Raulings E, Boon PI, Bailey PC, Morris K, Roache MC & Robinson RR (in press). Rehabilitation of Swamp Paperbark (Melaleuca ericifolia) wetlands in south-eastern Australia: effects of hydrology, microtopography, plant age and planting technique on the success of community-based revegetation trials. Wetland Ecology and Management

Salter J, Morris K, Bailey PCB & Boon PI (in press). Interactive effects of salinity and water depth on the growth of seedling Swamp Paperbark (Melaleuca ericifolia Sm). Aquatic Botany

Robinson RR, Boon PI & Bailey PC (2006). Germination characteristics of Melaleuca ericifolia Sm. (Swamp Paperbark) and their implications for the rehabilitation of coastal wetlands. Marine and Freshwater Research 57:1-9.

Steart DC, Boon PI & Greenwood DR (2006). The lateral transport of leaves into streams from two Australian forest types. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 118:65-74.

Boon PI (2006). Biogeochemistry, ecology and management of hydrologically dynamic wetlands. In: "The ecology of freshwater and estuarine wetlands". (Edited by Batzer DP & Sharitz RR). Pages 115-176. University of California Press, Berkeley.

Hadwen W, Arthington A, Boon PI, Lepesteur ML & McComb A (2006). Rivers, streams, lakes and estuaries: hot spots for cool recreation and tourism in Australia. Sustainable Tourism CRC Technical report 1 920704 68 X, Gold Coast.

Morris KL, Bailey PC, Boon PI & Hughes L (2006). Effects of plant harvesting and nutrient enrichment on phytoplankton community structure in a shallow urban lake. Hydrobiologia 571: 77-91.

Bailey PC, Boon PI, Blinn, D & Williams WD (2006). Salinity as an ecological perturbation to rivers, streams and wetlands of arid and semi-arid zones. In: "Ecology of desert rivers". (Edited by Kingsford R). Chapter 10 (pages 280-314). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Roache MC, Bailey PC & Boon PI (2006). Effects of salinity on the decay of aquatic macrophytes. Aquatic Botany 84: 45-52.

Steart DC, Greenwood DR & Boon PI (2005). Palaeological implications of differential biomass and litter production in canopy trees in Australian Nothofagus and Eucalyptus forests. Palios V_20: 452-462.

Fluker M & Boon PI (2005). Developing a model for assessing the environmental condition of bush-walking tracks in Victoria. Proceedings of the 14th Council for Australian University Tourism and Hopsitality Education (CAUTHE).

Morris KL, Harrison KA, Bailey PC & Boon PI (2004). Domain shifts in the aquatic vegetation of shallow urban lakes: the relative roles of light limitation and anoxia in the catastrophic loss of the submerged angiosperm Vallisneria americana. Marine and Freshwater Research 55: 749-758.

Bailey PC, Boon PI & Morris KL (2003). Australian biodiversity salt sensitivity database. URL: http:www.rivers.gov.au/research/contaminants/saltsen.htm

Morris KL, Bailey PC, Boon PI & Hughes L (2003). Stable states in the aquatic vegetation of shallow lakes. II. A novel mechanism for the catastrophic loss of macrophytes in shallow lakes. Marine and Freshwater Research 54: 185-200.

Morris KL, Boon PI, Bailey PC & Hughes L (2003). Stable states in the aquatic vegetation of shallow lakes. I. Effects of nutrient enrichment and plant harvesting on primary producers. Marine and Freshwater Research 54: 201-215.

Bailey PC, Watkins S C, Morris KL & Boon PI (2003). Do Melaleuca ericifolia Sm leaves suppress organic-matter decay in freshwater wetlands? Archiv fur Hydrobiologie 156: 225-240.

Steart DC, Boon PI, Greenwood DR & Diamond NT (2002). Transport of leaf litter in upland streams of south-east Australian Eucalyptus and Nothofagus forests. Archiv fur Hydrobiologie 156: 43-61.

Ford PW, Boon PI & Lee K (2002). Diel temperature stratification of a floodplain billabong and its significance for methane and oxygen dynamics. Hydrobiologia 485: 97-110.

Boon PI, Burridge T & Fluker M (2002). A case for supply-led nature-based tourism within the marine and coastal temperate systems of south-eastern Australia. Journal of Ecotourism 1: 93-103.

Burridge T, Boon PI & Fluker M (2002). Ensuring the sustainability of nature-based tourism in marine and coastal temperate areas of south-eastern Australia. Proceedings of the 12th Council for Australian University Tourism and Hospitality Education (CAUTHE). Paper 12.

Boon PI, Muller KL & Ganf GG (2000). Methane emissions from diverse wetlands in south-eastern Australia. Verhandlungen Vereinigung Internationale Limnologie 27: 1382-1386.

Boon PI (2000). Carbon cycling in Australian wetlands: the importance of methane. Verhandlungen Vereinigung Internationale Limnologie 27: 1-14.

Bird FL, Boon PI & Nichols PD (2000). Physiochemical and microbial properties of burrows of the deposit-feeding thallassinidean ghost shrimp Biffarius arenosus (Decapoda: Callianassidae) in Western Port, Victoria, Australia. Marine, Coastal and Shelf Science 51: 279-29.

Boon, PI (2000). Bacterial biodiversity in wetlands. In: "Biodiversity in wetlands: assessment, function and conservation". (Edited by Gopal B, Junk WJ & Davis JA). pp 281-310. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden.

Boon PI (2000). Nitrogen cycling: microbial processes. In "Sources, transformations, effects and management of nitrogen in fresh waters." (Edited by Hart BT & Grace M). pp 63-82. LWRRDC, Canberra.

Biography

Paul studied Botany and Microbiology at the University of Sydney and was awarded a First Class Honours in 1979 for his research on salt secretion in mangroves. After a time spent in casual employment in the halcyon days at the end of the 1970s, he started a PhD on nutrient cycling in seagrass beds at Griffith University in Queensland. After gaining his PhD, he worked for 2 years in the Botany Department of Monash University, then 8 years for CSIRO Land & Water at the Murray-Darling Freshwater Research Centre at Albury. He joined Victoria university in 1994, left in 1999 to work for the consulting firm Sinclair Knight Merz, and rejoined the university in 2000. He was promoted to Professor in 2003.


Web Links

Bailey PC, Boon PI & Morris KL (2003). Australian biodiversity salt sensitivity database.