Watching the Tide Roll Away – reply to Tibby et al. (2020)

Abstract

The published findings on the diatom-inferred condition of a terminal lake in the Murray–Darling Basin were overlooked in favour of a revised unpublished interpretation, without the provision of new evidence or argument, posted on the website of the managing state government. Coauthors of the posted report have responded (Tibby et al. 2020) to the publication (Gell 2020) that outlined the changes made to this interpretation. This reply reaffirms that subtle changes were made to published interpretations and that these were critical in the development of a watering plan for the system. It also illustrates that anecdotal evidence was used selectively but would be a valuable contribution if aligned to known climatic variability. Further, this response corrects the widespread misunderstanding that signatory nations to the Ramsar Convention are obliged to retain listed wetlands in the condition observed at the time of listing. Finally, this response contests the favouring of certain evidence and seeks an approach that reconciles all available evidence, incorporates variability into planning and prepares for future management challenges.