Freshwater and riparian ecosystems are likely to be highly vulnerable to the effects of the current phase of rapid, anthropogenic climate change because of their high levels of exposure and sensitivity to changes in climatic stimuli. Furthermore, the adaptive capacity of these ecosystems has been limited due to human activities ( Capon et al . 2013 ; Capon and Bunn 2015 ). Riverine vegetation is exposed to all the direct influences of rising CO 2 and the climatic changes driven by this described for terrestrial vegetation, including elevated temperatures, altered precipitation and evapotranspiration pat-terns. Additionally, climate change has many indirect effects on riverine vegetation as a result of changes in soil moisture, hydrology and, in coastal situations, sea level rise and storm surges. Arguably, no other vegetation type is subject to the same levels of exposure and yet relatively little is known about how plants in Australian riverine habitats may respond. While climate has similar influences on riparian vegetation across the globe, the Australian context differs in the highly weathered and low-nutrient soils that characterise much of the continent. Furthermore, Australian inland rivers are among the most hydrologically variable in the world ( Puckridge et al . 1998) due to highly variable temperatures, precipitation and corresponding hydrological regimes. Australia’s uniqueness has important implications for how the vegetation of Australian riverine systems may respond to a changing climate and their capacity to adapt. Riverine vegetation is found throughout many Australian landscapes, including desert, alpine, temperate, subtropical, tropical and Mediterranean. Riverine vegetation often differs in structure, composition and distinctiveness from the surrounding terrestrial vegetation. Under rising CO 2 and other climate change effects, the structure and function of riverine ecosystems in most landscapes are likely to change although the direction and magnitude of this will differ between regions, landscape position and ecosystem type (Catford et al . 2013).