Lewis, S., Bainbridge, Z., Stevens, T., Garzon-George, A., Bahador, M., Burton, J., Rezaei Rasht, M., James, C., Smithers, S., and Olley, J. (2020) What’s really damaging the Reef?: Tracing the origin and fate of the ecologically detrimental sediment and associated bioavailable nutrients. Report. Reef and Rainforest Research Centre, Cairns, QLD, Australia.

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Abstract

This report addresses six key systematic questions to help inform the debate on the influence of anthropogenic sediment and associated particulate nutrients delivered to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) lagoon. They are:

1. What is the influence of the newly-delivered sediment (i.e. from flood plumes) on turbidity regimes at coral reef and seagrass locations of the inshore GBR?

2. What is the contribution of the anthropogenic component of this sediment on turbidity regimes?

3. What are the characteristics of the suspended particulate matter (and associated particulate nutrients) that influence light and turbidity regimes and how do these change over the estuarine mixing gradient of flood plumes?

4. How does the particulate organic component of the suspended particulate matter and associated microbial community composition change from the catchment to reef?

5. How bioavailable is the suspended particulate matter along the estuarine mixing gradient

6. Where does the sediment (and associated particulate nutrients) that influence light and turbidity regimes in the GBR come from in the Burdekin catchment so that management efforts can be prioritised?

This final project report is divided into eight separate stand-alone research chapters which collectively address these six key questions.

Item ID:	79901
Item Type:	Report (Report)
ISBN:	978-1-925514-85-8
Keywords:	Great Barrier reef detrimental sediments, detrimental bioavailable nutrients
Copyright Information:	©James Cook University, 2021. CC BY 4.0
Funders:	Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program (NESP) through the Tropical Water Quality (TWQ) Hub managed by the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre (RRRC), Queensland Department of Environment and Science’s Reef Water Quality Science Program
Projects and Grants:	Queensland Government Advance Queensland Research Fellowship (Z.Bainbridge).
Research Data:	https://eatlas.org.au/
Date Deposited:	31 Aug 2023 01:21
FoR Codes:	41 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 4199 Other environmental sciences > 419999 Other environmental sciences not elsewhere classified @ 100%
SEO Codes:	18 ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT > 1899 Other environmental management > 189999 Other environmental management not elsewhere classified @ 100%
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