PROJECT 1.3: TERRIGENOUS SEDIMENTS
(Dr K Woolfe, JCU)
Major progress was made in characterising and mapping the extent
of the 'sediment wedge' adjacent to the Queensland coast (Task 1.3.1).
This wedge is a mixture of terrestrial and marine sediments, the latter
including carbonate biogenic materials, and Pleistocene shelf soils pushed
landward during the last post-glacial transgression. Models and budgets
are being developed to quantify the relative importance of contemporary
soil-erosion versus transgressive sources of sediment in the coastal zone,
and hence better understand the impacts and threats posed to reefs by
post-European expansion of land-use. Various tracers
of human influence are also being analysed in surface samples
and cores (Task 1.3.2 and 1.3.4) to aid the development of this understanding.
A new task was started, examining long term climatological history and
its manifestation in coral skeletal cores.
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