CQU Plant Sciences PhD student Shamsa Syeda was successful in winning the 2006 Ernest Jackson Memorial Research Grant awarded by the River Basin Management Society (RBMS).

According to Professor David Midmore, Director of the Plant Sciences Group, the successful proposal on the impacts of acid mine drainage on the integrated ecological health of the Dee River, fitted very well into the RBMS mission statement to "establish a balanced approach to land, water and natural resource management on a catchment basis".

Ernest Jackson worked for the better understanding of the relationships between land and water for over 50 years and was one of the first people to call this relationship Integrated Catchment Management.

Shamsa’s research is being funded by a CQU University Postgraduate Research Award and by the Department of Natural Resources and Mines (DNR&M).

She has already amassed a large amount of data on biological, chemical and physical parameters at various sampling locations along the length of the river.

The timing of some of the imminent DNR&M lime amendments to the highly acid dam at the Mount Morgan Mine Site will allow Shamsa to pick up the impact of the same on the biology of the system down-stream from the dam.

Photo: CQU Plant Sciences PhD student Shamsa Syeda collecting samples in the Dee River.