Paul Humphries

Associate Professor Paul Humpries

River and Fish Ecologist

Agricultural, Environmental and Veterinary Sciences

Biography

Associate Professor Paul Humphries' research interests mostly relate to rivers and their ecology. While he has worked mostly on fish-related topics, he also has an interest in macroinvertebrates and macrophytes. Most of his work in the last 20 years has been on the relationship between riverine biota and flow. Since 1996, he has focussed on aspects of the spawning and early life history of freshwater fishes. He has also carried out and collaborated on several projects on the dispersal of the young stages of fish and shrimp in rivers both in Australia and Europe. He is also passionately interested in historical ecology, especially in the Murray-Darling Basin, and is currently collaborating on several palaeoecological and zooarchaeological projects, which aim to look at past faunas and ecosystems, to aid conservation and management of our rivers. He co-edited with Keith Walker, 'Ecology of Australian Freshwater Fishes', published by CSIRO Publishing in 2013.

Research
  • Relationships between riverine biota and flow
  • Historical ecology, especially in the Murray-Darling Basin
  • Spawning and early life history
  • Dispersal of the young stages of fish and shrimps in rivers
Publications
Full publications list on CRO

Recent Publications

  • McCasker, N., Humphries, P., Ievasi, D., & Davies, P. (2024). Trialling methods for detecting freshwater mussels in the Edward/Kolety-Wakool River system.
  • Humphries, P., & Kopf, K. (2022). Floods can be a disaster for humans-but for nature, it's boom time. The Conversation.
  • Stoffels, R. J., Humphries, P., Bond, N. R., & Price, A. E. (2022). Fragmentation of lateral connectivity and fish population dynamics in large rivers. Fish and Fisheries. https://doi.org/10.1111/faf.12641
  • Freire, R., Rogers, L., Kopf, K., Humphries, P., & Westaway, C. (2021). Evaluation of survival behaviour of fish to inform re-stocking programs for recreational fisheries and conservation of wild fish: Final report LF023. (ILWS Report; No. 153). Institute of Land Water and Society.
  • McCasker, N., & Humphries, P. (2021). Hyriid mussels (Unionoida) enhance benthic organic matter and meiofauna densities in a temperate Australian river. Freshwater Biology, 66(5), 936-948. https://doi.org/10.1111/fwb.13688