Ensuring sustainable management of water resources is one of the most critical environmental issues faced by many countries around the world.

Our research encompasses a number of projects aimed at understanding the development of groundwater resources, the relative dependency of ecosystems on groundwater versus soil and surface water, and an assessment of the probable impacts of altered hydrology, especially dewatering and salinisation, on ecosystems.

Coupled with modern methods of dating groundwater and characterisation of dissolved organic matter and geochemistry, stable isotope studies (²H/¹H, ¹⁸O/¹⁶O) are a valuable tool for understanding the movement and history of water within a landscape as well as their potential for exploitation. For example, we use measures of ¹⁸O/¹⁶O and ²H/¹H ratios in studies of groundwater systems to provide insights into their meteoric derivation, to identify recharge areas, residence time in the aquifer and mixing with connate, thermal or seawater-derived fluids.

Further information

• Dogramaci S, Skrzypek G. (2015) Unravelling sources of solutes in groundwater of an ancient landscape in NW Australia using stable Sr, H and O isotopes. Chemical Geology. 393–394, 67–78.
• Dogramaci S, Firmani G, Hedley P, Skrzypek G, Grierson PF. (2015) Evaluating recharge to an ephemeral dryland stream using a hydraulic model and water, chloride and isotope mass balance. Journal of Hydrology 521, 520–532.
• Skrzypek G, Mydłowski A, Dogramaci S, Hedley P, Gibson JJ, Grierson PF. (2015) Estimation of evaporative loss based on the stable isotope composition of water using Hydrocalculator. Journal of Hydrology 523, 781–789.
   
  
• Fellman JB, Spencer RG, Raymond PA, Pettit NE, Skrzypek G, Hernes PJ, Grierson PF. (2014) Dissolved organic carbon biolability decreases along with its modernization in fluvial networks in an ancient landscape. Ecology 95(9), 2622–2632.
  
  
• Fellman JB, Petrone K, Grierson PF. (2013) Leaf litter age, chemical quality and photodegradation control the fate of leachate dissolved organic matter in a dryland river. Journal of Arid Environments 89, 30-37.
• Fellman JB, Pettit NE, Kalic J, Grierson PF. (2013) Influence of stream–floodplain biogeochemical linkages on aquatic foodweb structure along a gradient of stream size in a tropical catchment.  Freshwater Science 32, 217-229.
• Guan H, Zhang X, Skrzypek G, Sun Z. (2013) Deuterium excess variations of rainfall events in a coastal area of South Australia and its relationship with synoptic weather patterns and atmospheric moisture sources. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 118, 1–16 (DOI:10.1002/jgrd.50137).
• Skrzypek G, Dogramci S, Grierson P. (2013) Geochemical and hydrological processes controlling groundwater salinity of a large inland wetland of northwest Australia. Chemical Geology 357, 164-177.
  
  
• Dogramaci S, Skrzypek G, Dodson W, Grierson PF. (2012) Stable isotope and hydrochemical evolution of groundwater in the semi-arid Hamersley Basin of sub-tropical northwest Australia. Journal of Hydrology 475, 281-293.
• Fraser MW, Kendrick GA, Grierson PF, Fourqurean JW, Vanderklift MA, Walker DI. (2012) Nutrient status of seagrasses cannot be inferred from system-scale distribution of phosphorus in Shark Bay, Western Australia. Marine & Freshwater Research 63, 1015–1026.
• Pettit NE, Davies T, Fellman, JB, Grierson PF, Warfe DM, Davies PM. (2012) Leaf litter chemistry, decomposition and assimilation by macroinvertebrates in two tropical streams. Hydrobiologia 680, 63-77.
• Price R, Skrzypek G, Grierson PF, Swart PK, Fourqurean JW. (2012) The use of stable isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen to identify water sources of two hypersaline estuaries with different hydrologic regimes. Marine & Freshwater Research 63, 952–966.
  
  
• Fellman JB, Dogramaci S, Skrzypek G, Dodson W, Grierson PF. (2011) Hydrologic control of dissolved organic matter biogeochemistry in pools of a subtropical dryland river. Water Resources Research 47, W06501, doi: 10.1029/2010WR010275.
• Fellman JB, Petrone K, Grierson PF. (2011) Source, biogeochemical cycling, and fluorescence characteristics of dissolved organic matter in an agro-urban estuary. Limnology and Oceanography 56, 243-256.
• Petrone K, Fellman JB, Hood E, Donn MJ, Grierson PF. (2011) Fluorescence characteristics and bioavailability of dissolved organic matter in agro-urban coastal streams. Journal of Geophysical Research 116, G01028, doi: 10.1029/2010JG001537.