[Aqualist] Sad news - the passing of Deborah Haynes

[John Tibby]

Dear AQUA colleagues,

It is with great sorrow that I am writing to let you know that our colleague Deborah Haynes passed away last week after a lengthy battle with cancer.  I’ve written a few words below which I hope does some justice to the force of nature who was Deborah.

Deborah was fantastic to work with – always incredibly energetic and optimistic. Deborah “brought  people along for the ride” with her enthusiasm and kindness.  Her work provided fundamental science and applied knowledge.   Deborah produced a number of scientific papers mostly on the Coorong and lower Murray lakes.  Deborah was a highly generous collaborator – always ready to help other people, particularly students, to get the most out of themselves and their work.   Deborah's work will have a legacy for decades to come.

It was a delight to share field work with Deborah who took it seriously, but never herself. Thanks to Deborah there were usually snacks during the day and sprits at night (!). Deborah undertook numerous trips to the Coorong; Lakes Alexandrina and Albert; the south-east of SA; and various sites on the River Murray.   Deborah brought her prodigious organisational skills to lead a large number of these trips. In doing so, those both younger and older than her learned an enormous amount from her.

Deborah did her undergraduate degree in Geography at The University of Adelaide. Following this she did her Honours thesis and follow up work on Lakes Bonney and Frome in the south-east of SA.  This work showed t­­hat the drainage network in the south-east had contributed to these lakes becoming unusually fresh (Haynes et al. 2007)

Deborah’s PhD (which is sadly unfinished) focused on understand and environmental history and modern diatom communities in the Coorong lagoon.  Deborah’s work was fundamental and demonstrating just how significantly the ecology of the Coorong has changed since European occupation. She was able to demonstrate that, along with changes to salinity of the Coorong, water quality has declined significantly – so much so that the diatoms that currently inhabit the Coorong are fundamental different to those that were there before European colonisation.

Beyond her PhD, Deborah was pivotal in developing an understanding of the environmental history of Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert.   This work has been the fundamental to managing the lower lakes and Deborah played an active role in advising the South Australian government about how understanding the natural environment of the lower lakes was important for management.   This work has underpinned management plans for the lakes over the past decade. Recent new palaeolimnology research on the lower lakes relied entirely on data that Deborah generated.   Thanks to Deborah we have a fundamentally different understanding the lakes behaved before European invasion.

Alongside this work, Deborah also had responsibility for undertaking a large amount of consulting work at the University of Adelaide and managing both microscope and other laboratories at the University. She maintained a tight rein (!) on others in the lab, but did so with kindness and generosity. Deborah never hesitated to help others – she will be greatly missed.


Deborah Haynes’ Publications
Haynes D, Gell P, Tibby J, Hancock G, Goonan P (2007) Against the tide: The freshening of naturally saline coastal lakes, southeastern South Australia. Hydrobiologia 591(1), 165-183.

Haynes D, Skinner R, Tibby J, Cann J, Fluin J (2011) Diatom and foraminifera relationships to water quality in The Coorong, South Australia, and the development of a diatom-based salinity transfer function. Journal of Paleolimnology 46(4), 543-560.

Haynes D, Tibby J, Fluin J, Skinner R (2019) Palaeolimnology of the Lower Lakes and Coorong lagoon. In 'Natural History of The Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth (Yarluwar-Ruwe)'. (Ed. L Mosley, Q Ye, S Shepherd, S Hemming and R Fitzpatrick)  pp. 122-143. (University of Adelaide Press: Adelaide)


Bourman RP, Murray-Wallace CV, Wilson C, Mosley L, Tibby J, Ryan DD, De Carli ED, Tulley A, Belperio AP, Haynes D, Roberts A, Westell C, Barnett EJ, Dillenburg S, Beheregaray LB, Hesp PA (2022) Holocene freshwater history of the Lower River Murray and its terminal lakes, Alexandrina and Albert, South Australia, and its relevance to contemporary environmental management. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 69(5), 605-629.

Bourman RP, Murray-Wallace CV, Wilson C, Mosley L, Tibby J, Ryan DD, De Carli ED, Tulley A, Belperio AP, Haynes D, Roberts A, Westell C, Barnett EJ, Dillenburg S, Beheregaray LB, Hesp PA (2023) Reply to the discussion by Gell and Finlayson (2023). Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 70(3), 448-452.

Coates-Marnane J, Olley J, Tibby J, Burton J, Haynes D, Kemp J (2018) A 1500 year record of river discharge inferred from fluvial-marine sediments in the Australian subtropics. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 504, 136-149.

Coates-Marnane J, Pausina S, Burton J, Haynes D, Oudyn F, Olley J (2021) A record of diatom community response to catchment land-use change in Moreton Bay, Australia. Marine and Freshwater Research 72(6), 823-837.

Dick J, Haynes D, Tibby J, Garcia A, Gell P (2011) A history of aquatic plants in the Coorong, a Ramsar-listed coastal wetland, South Australia. Journal of Paleolimnology 46(4), 623-635.

Fluin J, Gell P, Haynes D, Tibby J, Hancock G (2007) Palaeolimnological evidence for the independent evolution of neighbouring terminal lakes, the Murray Darling Basin, Australia. Hydrobiologia 591(1), 117-134.

Gell P, Fluin J, Tibby J, Hancock G, Harrison J, Zawadzki A, Haynes D, Khanum S, Little F, Walsh B (2009) Anthropogenic acceleration of sediment accretion in lowland floodplain wetlands, Murray-Darling Basin, Australia. Geomorphology 108(1-2), 122-126.

Gell P, Fluin J, Tibby J, Haynes D, Khanum SI, Walsh B, Hancock G, Harrison J, Zawadzki A, Little F Changing fluxes of sediments and salts as recorded in lower River Murray wetlands, Australia. In 'IAHS-AISH Publication', 2006, pp. 416-424)

Krull E, Haynes D, Lamontagne S, Gell P, McKirdy D, Hancock G, McGowan J, Smernik R (2009) Changes in the chemistry of sedimentary organic matter within the Coorong over space and time. Biogeochemistry 92(1-2), 9-25.

Lower CS, Cann JH, Haynes D (2013) Microfossil evidence for salinity events in the Holocene Coorong Lagoon, South Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 60(5), 573-587.

McKirdy DM, Thorpe CS, Haynes DE, Grice K, Krull ES, Halverson GP, Webster LJ (2010) The biogeochemical evolution of the Coorong during the mid- to late Holocene: An elemental, isotopic and biomarker perspective. Organic Geochemistry 41(2), 96-110.

Reeves JM, Haynes D, García A, Gell PA (2015) Hydrological Change in the Coorong Estuary, Australia, Past and Present: Evidence from Fossil Invertebrate and Algal Assemblages. Estuaries and Coasts 38(6), 2101-2116.

Shao Y, Farkaš J, Holmden C, Mosley L, Kell-Duivestein I, Izzo C, Reis-Santos P, Tyler J, Törber P, Frýda J, Taylor H, Haynes D, Tibby J, Gillanders BM (2018) Calcium and strontium isotope systematics in the lagoon-estuarine environments of South Australia: Implications for water source mixing, carbonate fluxes and fish migration. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 239, 90-108.

Tibby J, Bourman B, Wilson C, Mosley LM, Belperio AP, Ryan DD, Hesp PA, Murray-Wallace CV, da Silva GM, Dillenburg SR, Haynes D (2021) A large mid-Holocene estuary was not present in the lower River Murray, Australia. Scientific Reports 11(1), 12082.

Tibby J, Haynes D, Gibbs M, Mosley L, Bourman RP, Fluin J (2022) The terminal lakes of the Murray River, Australia, were predominantly fresh before large-scale upstream water abstraction: Evidence from sedimentary diatoms and hydrodynamical modelling. Science of The Total Environment 835, 155225.

Tibby J, Haynes D, Muller K (2020) The predominantly fresh history of Lake Alexandrina, South Australia, and its implications for the Murray-Darling Basin Plan: A comment on Gell (2020). Pacific Conservation Biology 26(2), 142-149.

Yu L, García A, Chivas AR, Tibby J, Kobayashi T, Haynes D (2015) Ecological change in fragile floodplain wetland ecosystems, natural vs human influence: The Macquarie Marshes of eastern Australia. Aquatic Botany 120(PA), 39-50.



Yours sincerely,
John.
__________________________________________
Associate Professor John Tibby
Head of Department
Geography, Environment and Population
University of Adelaide
Pronouns: he/his

Phone: +61 (0)8 8313-5146<tel:%2B61%20%280%298%208313-5146>
EMAIL: john.tibby at adelaide.edu.au<mailto:john.tibby at adelaide.edu.au>

Recent publications:
Tibby et al. (2023) Sedimentation from landscape clearance-induced soil erosion threatens waterhole persistence in a semi-arid river system, southern Queensland, Australia<https://www.publish.csiro.au/MF/MF23016>. Marine and Freshwater Research.
See also our piece in The Conversation<https://theconversation.com/soil-erosion-is-filling-vital-inland-river-waterholes-putting-the-squeeze-on-fish-turtles-and-crayfish-207155>.
Tibby et al. (2022) The terminal lakes of the Murray River, Australia, were predominantly fresh before large-scale upstream water abstraction<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896972202318X?via%3Dihub>. Science of the Total Environment

Tibby et al. (2020) Diatom–water quality thresholds in South Australian streams indicate a need for more stringent water quality guidelines<http://www.publish.csiro.au/MF/MF19065>. Marine and Freshwater Research


Web address: http://researchers.adelaide.edu.au/profile/john.tibby
Google Scholar profile: http://tinyurl.com/Google-Scholar-Tibby
Twitter: john_tibby
Field work photos (link)<https://www.flickr.com/photos/25765066@N06/>

Address for sending samples:
John Tibby
c/o Sarah Hoggard
(08) 8313-3737
Room G19
Napier Building
University of Adelaide
North Terrace
Adelaide, South Australia, 5005

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