Nutrient inputs and water quality (C2.1)

Task leader: Dr Dan Alongi, Australian Institute of Marine Science.

Task associates:
Dr David Haynes, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
Mr Vern Veitch, Sunfish Queensland.

The objectives of this research are to:

• Make robust estimates of terrestrial inputs of nutrients and sediment to the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA) which appropriately weight the relative contributions of wet, dry, pristine and modified catchments.

• Resolve short-term biological and chemical processes in Great Barrier Reef (GBR) waters which influence the biological availability and uptake of nutrient materials (carbon, nitrogen, phosphate) in river plumes.

• Develop an improved estimate of the fate of nutrient materials (C, N, P) delivered to shelf sediments as a result of land runoff and related biological production, with emphasis on nutrient burial, recycling and denitrification in nearshore (terrestrial) sediments.

• Use the above information and other appropriate field and historical data, to develop robust, closed models and budgets of nutrient inputs, processing and fates as a basis for comparing human-influenced and pristine shelf regions in the GBRWHA.

• Provide environmental and water quality data essential to the companion task (1.3.2.2): effects of terrestrial run-off on coastal reefs.

• During the course of the above, to maintain long-term water quality monitoring activities in representative sections of the central GBR.

• To provide reef managers and users with timely and appropriate information to assist them in the management and conservation of nearshore reef systems, particularly with respect to the management of enhanced terrestrial run-off.