4 – Natural flows drive the ‘ boom and bust’ ecology of fish in Cooper Creek 53 Arthington AH, Balcombe SR, Wilson GA, Thoms MC, Marshall J (2005) Spatial and temporal variation in fish-assemblage structure in isolated waterholes during the 2001 dry season of an arid-zone floodplain river, Cooper Creek, Australia. Marine and Freshwater Research 56, 25–35. doi:10.1071/MF04111 Arthington AH, Olden JD, Balcombe SR, Thoms MC (2010) Multi-scale environmental factors explain fish losses and refuge quality in drying waterholes of Cooper Creek, an Australian arid-zone river. Marine and Freshwater Research 61, 842–856. doi:10.1071/MF09096 Balcombe SR, Arthington AH (2009) Temporal changes in fish abundance in response to hydrological variability in a dryland floodplain river. Marine and Freshwater Research 60, 146–159. doi:10.1071/MF08118 Balcombe SR, Bunn SE, Mckenzie-Smith FJ, Davies PM (2005) Variability of fish diets between dry and flood periods in an arid zone floodplain river. Journal of Fish Biology 67, 1552–1567. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8649.2005.00858.x Balcombe SR, Arthington AH, Foster ND, Thoms MC, Wilson GG, Bunn SE (2006) Fish assemblages of an Australian dryland river: abundance, assemblage structure and recruitment patterns in the Warrego River, Murray-Darling Basin. Marine and Freshwater Research 57, 619–633. doi:10.1071/MF06025 Balcombe SR, Bunn SE, Arthington AH, Fawcett JH, Mckenzie-Smith FJ, Wright A (2007) Fish larvae, growth and biomass relationships in an Australian arid zone river: links between floodplains and waterholes. Freshwater Biology 52, 2385–2398. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2427.2007.01855.x Balcombe SR, Arthington AH, Thoms MC, Wilson GG (2011) Fish assemblage patterns across a gradient of flow regulation in an Australian dryland river system. River Research and Applications 27, 168–183. Bond NR, Lake PS, Arthington AH (2008) The impacts of drought on freshwater ecosystems: an Australian perspective. Hydrobiologia 600, 3–16. doi:10.1007/s10750-008-9326-z Bunn SE, Davies PM, Winning M (2003) Sources of organic carbon supporting the food web of an arid zone floodplain river. Freshwater Biology 48, 619–635. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2427.2003.01031.x Cockayne BJ, Sternberg D, Schmarr DW, Duguid AW, Mathwin R (2015) Lake Eyre golden perch (Macquaria sp.) spawning and recruitment is enhanced by flow events in the hydrologically variable rivers of Lake Eyre Basin, Australia. Marine and Freshwater Research 66, 822–830. doi:10.1071/MF14242 Habeck-Fardy A, Nanson GC (2014) Environmental character and history of the Lake Eyre Basin, one seventh of the Australian continent. Earth-Science Reviews 132, 39–66. doi:10.1016/j. earscirev.2014.02.003 Hamilton SK, Bunn SE, Thoms MC, Marshall JC (2005) Persistence of aquatic refugia between flow pulses in a dryland river system (Cooper Creek, Australia). Limnology and Oceanography 50, 743–754. doi:10.4319/lo.2005.50.3.0743 Junk WJ, Bayley PB, Sparks RE (1989) The flood-pulse concept in river-floodplain systems. Proc. Internat. Large Rivers Symp. (LARS). Ed Dodge, D.P. Canadian Special Publication of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 106, 110–127. Kerezsy A, Fensham R (2013) Conservation of the endangered red-finned blue-eye, Scaturiginichthys vermeilipinnis, and control of alien eastern gambusia, Gambusia holbrooki, in a spring wetland complex. Marine and Freshwater Research 64, 851–863. doi:10.1071/MF12236 Kerezsy A, Balcombe SR, Arthington AH, Bunn SE (2011) Continuous recruitment underpins fish persistence in the arid rivers of far-western Queensland, Australia. Marine and Freshwater Research 62, 1178–1190. doi:10.1071/MF11021 Kerezsy A, Balcombe SR, Tischler M, Arthington AH (2013) Fish movement strategies in an ephemeral river in the Simpson Desert, Australia. Austral Ecology 38, 798–808. doi:10.1111/ aec.12075 Kerezsy A, Arthington AH, Balcombe SR (2014) Fish distribution in far western Queensland, Australia: the importance of habitat, connectivity and natural flows. Diversity (Basel) 6, 380–395. doi:10.3390/d6020380