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Biography

Brenton is a Principal Research Scientist in CSIRO Land and Water's Aquatic Ecology Monitoring and Assessment Team. He is responsible for developing and leading research relating to the ecology and population dynamics of freshwater and estuarine fishes and management of aquatic ecosystems. This research involves close collaboration with State and Commonwealth natural resource management agencies.

For 25 years, Brenton has worked extensively on freshwater and estuarine ecosystems throughout south-eastern Australia. His current research involves the impacts of river regulation on native and invasive fishes to inform water resource management and aquatic ecosystem conservation. Prior to joining CSIRO in 2019, Brenton worked as a senior research scientist at the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) (2003-2019) and at the Arthur Rylah Institute in Victoria (1997-2003).

Brenton is currently undertaking large-scale, collaborative research projects on fishes throughout the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB), including the Coorong estuary. These projects are using telemetry, otolith chemistry and demographic data to understand the ecology of fishes and spatio-temporal scales of population dynamics. This research is aiding fisheries and water resource management, including environmental water allocation. Research collaborators include NSW Fisheries, Arthur Rylah Institute (Victoria), SARDI, and numerous Universities including Adelaide, Charles Sturt, Melbourne, Charles Darwin, La Trobe and Griffith.

Brenton also plays a key role in a range of multi-disciplinary and cross-jurisdictional environmental water requirement projects, including development of the FLOWS technique for the establishment of EWRs for rivers in Victoria and co-leadership of the fish ecology components of the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holders long-term intervention monitoring (LTIM), environmental water knowledge requirements (EWKR) and monitoring, evaluation and research (MER) projects.

Other Interests

Brenton is a member of numerous State and National working and advisory groups, including: MDBA's Native Fish Recovery Strategy Technical Advisory Group, Victorian Environmental Flows Monitoring and Assessment Program (VEFMAP) Technical Advisory Group, MDB EWKR and MER fish leadership groups and South Australia's River Murray Operations Working Group.

Brenton is also on the Editorial Board of Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia.

Academic Qualifications

  • 1994

    B Sc (Hons)
    University of Adelaide

  • 2019

    PhD
    University of Adelaide