Dr Nicole McCasker

Dr Nicole McCasker is an early career, post-doctoral researcher with ILWS. Her major interests include the early life histories of freshwater fish, and riverine ecology more generally. Over the last 10 years Nicole has worked in a vast array of wetland, riverine and floodplain environments throughout the southern Murray-Darling Basin. She is currently working with a multi-stake holder project assessing ecological responses to the delivery of environmental water in the Edward-Wakool system, NSW.  Along with her research, Nicole teaches at the undergraduate level as a sessional lecturer with the School of Environmental Sciences at CSU and she is a member of the  Fish Ecology Collaborative Research Unit (FECRU)

Research Interests

• River and floodplain ecology
• Functional role of freshwater mussels
• Early life history of freshwater fish

Bachelor of Conservation Ecology Deakin University 2000

Bachelor of Science (First Class Honours) Monash University 2002
Dissertation: Macroinvertebrate colonisation of re-introduced woody debris in the Little Yarra River, Victoria.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Charles Sturt University 2011
Dissertation: Of life and death in a lowland river: Investigating the sources and severity of mortality in during the early life stages of Murray-Darling fishes.

Selected Publications

Peer-reviewed publications

Humphries, P., McCasker, N., King, A., Kopf, R.K., Price, A., Stoffels, R. & Zampatti B.  (2019) Riverscape recruitment: a conceptual synthesis of fish recruitment processes in rivers. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.

Liu, X., Watts, R. J., Howitt, J. A., & McCasker, N. (2019) Carbon and nutrient release from experimental inundation of agricultural and forested floodplain soil and vegetation: influence of floodplain land use on the development of hypoxic blackwater during floods. Marine and Freshwater Research. https://doi.org/10.1071/MF18452

Kopf, R. K., Humphries, P., Bond, N. R., Sims, N. C., Watts, R. J., Thompson, R. M.,  Hladyz, S., Koehn, J.D., King, A.J., McCasker, N., McDonald, S. (2018) Macroecology of fish community biomass-size structure: effects of invasive species and river regulation. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. doi:10.1139/cjfas-2017-0544

Watts, R. J., Kopf, R. K., McCasker, N., Howitt, J. A., Conallin, J., Wooden, I. & Baumgartner, L. (2018) Adaptive Management of Environmental Flows: Using Irrigation Infrastructure to Deliver Environmental Benefits During a Large Hypoxic Blackwater Event in the Southern Murray–Darling Basin, Australia. Environmental Management 61: 469-480 DOI 10.1007/s00267-017-0941-1

McCasker, N., Humphries, P., Meredith, S., Klomp, N. (2014) Contrasting Patterns of Larval Mortality in Two Sympatric Riverine Fish Species: A Test of the Critical Period Hypothesis. PLoS ONE 9(10): e109317. http://www.plosone.org/article/fetchObject.action?uri=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0109317&representation=PDF

Lechner, A., Keckeis, H., Schludermann, E., Humphries, P., McCasker, N. and Tritthart, M. (2013) Hydraulic forces impact larval fish drift in the free flowing section of a large European river. Ecohydrology. Online (DOI: 10.1002/eco.1386)

Book Chapters

King, A., Humphries, P. & McCasker, N. (2013) Reproduction and Early Life History. In: Ecology of Australian Freshwater Fishes. Humphries, P. And Walker, K. (eds). CSIRO publishing, Collingwood. 440pp.

Technical Reports

Watts, R.J., Trethewie, J., McGrath, N., Healy, S., McCasker, N., Thiem, J., Howitt, J., Liu, X., Grace M. & Bond, N. (2019) Long Term Intervention Monitoring project, Edward-Wakool River System Selected Area, Progress Report number 20, June 2019. Charles Sturt University, Institute for Land, Water and Society. Prepared for the Commonwealth Environmental Water Office.

Watts, R.J., Trethewie, J., McCasker, N., Howitt, J., Liu, X., Healy, S., Thiem, J., Grace, M. & Bond, N. (2019) Long Term Intervention Monitoring project, Edward-Wakool River System Selected Area, Progress Report number 19, March 2019. Charles Sturt University, Institute for Land, Water and Society. Prepared for the Commonwealth Environmental Water Office.

Watts, R.J., McCasker, N., Thiem, J., Howitt, J., Healy, S., Trethewie, J., Liu, X., Grace, M. & Bond, N. (2018)  Long Term Intervention Monitoring project, Edward-Wakool River System Selected Area, Progress Report number 18, December 2018. Charles Sturt University, Institute for Land, Water and Society. Prepared for the Commonwealth Environmental Water Office.

Watts, R.J., McCasker, N.G., Howitt, J.A., Thiem, J.D., Grace, M.R., Trethewie, J.A., Healy, S. & Bond, N.R. (2018) Commonwealth Environmental Water Office Long Term Intervention Monitoring Project: Edward-Wakool River System Selected Area Summary Report, 2017-18. Report prepared for Commonwealth Environmental Water Office. Commonwealth of Australia.

Watts, R.J., McCasker, N.G., Howitt, J.A., Thiem, J.D., Grace, M.R., Trethewie, J.A., Healy, S.& Bond, N.R. (2018). Commonwealth Environmental Water Office Long Term Intervention Monitoring Project: Edward-Wakool River System Selected Area Technical Report, 2017-18.

Watts, R.J., Healy, S., Howitt, J., Kopf, R.K., McCasker, N., Thiem, J. (2017)  Long Term Intervention Monitoring project, Edward-Wakool River System Selected Area, Progress Report number 11, March 2017.  Prepared for the Commonwealth Environmental Water Office.

Watts, R., Howitt, J., McCasker, N., Abell, J. & Liu, X. (2016) Monitoring of the algal bloom in the Edward-Wakool system 2016, Update #4. All reports prepared for Commonwealth Environmental Water

Watts, R.J., Thiem, J., Howitt, J., McCasker, N., Kopf, R., Healy S and Abell, J. (2016) Long term intervention monitoring project, Edward-Wakool River System Selected Area, Progress Report number 7, March 2016. Prepared for the Commonwealth Environmental Water Office.

Watts, R.J., McCasker, N., Thiem, J., Howitt, J.A., Grace, M., Kopf, R.K., Healy, S., Bond, N. (2015) Commonwealth Environmental Water Office Long Term Intervention Monitoring Project: Edward-Wakool Selected Area Synthesis Report, 2014-15. Prepared for Commonwealth Environmental Water.

Watts, R.J., McCasker, N., Healy S., Howitt, J., and Abell, J. (2015) Long term intervention monitoring project, Edward-Wakool River System Selected Area, Progress Report number 6, December 2015. CSU, ILWS. Prepared for CEW

Watts, R.J., Kopf, R.K., McCasker N. & Thiem, J. (2015) Long term intervention monitoring project, Edward-Wakool River System Selected Area, Progress Report number 4, June 2015. CSU, ILWS. Prepared for CEW

Watts, R.J., Kopf, R.K., McCasker N. & Thiem, J. (2015) Long term intervention monitoring project, Edward-Wakool River System Selected Area, Progress Report number 3, March 2015. CSU, ILWS. Prepared for CEW

Watts, RJ, Kopf, R.K., Hladyz, S., Grace, M., Thompson, R., McCasker, N., Wassens, S., Howitt, J.A., and Conallin, J. (2012) Monitoring of ecosystem responses to the delivery of environmental water in the Edward-Wakool river system, 2011-2012.Report 1. Prepared for Commonwealth Environmental Water Office

Wassens, S., Watts, R.J .,Spencer, J.A., Howitt, J., McCasker, N., Griese, V., Burns, A., Croft, R., Zander, A., Amos, C. and Hall, A. (2012). Monitoring of ecosystem responses to the delivery of environmental water in the Murrumbidgee system. Institute for Land, Water and Society, Charles Sturt University.

Conference papers

Humphries, P., Kopf, S., Kaminskas ,T., Keckeis, H., McCasker, N., Stoffels, R., Bond, N. & Watts, R. (2015) Integrating life history theory and dispersal in riverine fishes. Presented at the 39th Annual Larval Fish Conference, Vienna, July 12-17

Current Projects

Environmental water requirements of freshwater mussels in the northern basin. McCasker, N., Humphries, P. (2020) CEWO, $20,000. Project led by Griffith University.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Research – Edward/Kolety- Wakool. Watts, R., Howitt, J., McCasker, N., Liu, X. & Trethewie, J.  (2019-2022) CEWO, $3.15M Project Webpages FlowMER webpage

Stuffed Murray Cod in Pubs. Humphries, P., McCasker, N., Kopf, R.  & O'Connell, M. (PhD student), (2017-2020) MDBA Scholarship grant, $45,000

Completed Projects

Conceptualisation of flow-recruitment relationships for riverine fisheries. Foundation activities for the Fish Theme of Environmental Water Knowledge Research (EWKR). (2016) Humphries, P., Mc Casker, N., & Kopf, R.K. MDFRC, $117,732

Monitoring ecosystem responses to Return Flows in the Koondrook-Pericoota Forest. Wolfenden, B., Jenkins, K. & McCasker, N. (2016-2017) NSW DPI (Fisheries), $36,908

Synthesis of flow-recruitment relationships for riverine fishes, Humphries, P., King, A. (CDU), Kopf, K., McCasker, N. & Stoffels, R. (2016) MDRFC, $82,028  Project details

Long Term Intervention Monitoring project - Edward Wakool Selected Area. Stage 2. Watts,R., McCasker,N., Howitt,J., Kopf,K with NSW Department of Primary Industries (Fisheries), Monash University (Water Studies Centre), Griffith University, NSW OEH, and Murray LLS. (2014-2019) CEWO, $3.36M Project Webpage

Blue-green algal monitoring in the Edward-Wakool River System. Watts, R., Howitt, J. & McCasker, N. (2016) CEWO, $106,476 (Contract variation for the LTIM project) Project Details

VEFMAP Fish data analysis-Part B: Analysis on existing fish data (2008-2014). Humphries, P. , Kopf, R.K. & McCasker, N. (2015) Goulburn Broken CMA, $9,800

Long Term Intervention Monitoring for the Edward Wakool System, Watts., R. McCasker, N., Howitt, J., & Kopf, K. with NSW DPI, Monash University, OEH, Murray CMA. (Dec 2013-April 2014) CEWO, $105,798

Monitoring the ecological response of Commonwealth environmental water delivered in 2013-14 to the Edward-Wakool river system. SEWPAC, Watts, R., McCasker, N., Kopf, K., & Howitt, J. (2013-2014) Partners Department of Primary Industries – NSW Fisheries, Murray Catchment Management Authority, Monash University, and NSW Office of Environment and Heritage. $753,656

Internal Grants

Ecological responses to environmental flow microscopy, Watts, R., Wassens, S., Jenkins, K., & McCasker, N. (2015) Research Infrastructure Block Grant (RIBG), $30,660