Advanced technologies for monitoring water quality in the Great Barrier Reef (C7.1)

Task leader: Dr Miles Furnas, Australian Institute of Marine Science.

Task associate: NA.

Through the Great Barrier Reef Water Quality Protection Plan, the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality (NAP) and National Heritage Trust (NHT2), the Commonwealth and Queensland Governments will assist landholders in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) catchment to reduce terrestrial runoff of sediment and nutrients to the reef in order to improve water quality in the GBR lagoon and thereby, the "health" of those parts of the GBR most affected by land runoff. The development of capacity to reliably monitor (audit) and track the status of nearshore marine ecosystems, and to monitor trends in nearshore water quality will be an essential part of of this overall effort. This information will provide feedback to governments, land users and land managers on the changing status of at-risk areas of the GBR, and more importantly, on the effectiveness of changing land use and land management practices on the reef.

The results of measurement and monitoring activities within this task will provide essential environmental data for interpreting the results of field and experimental studies carried out within CRC Reef Tasks C2.1 and C2.2, and the new CRC Rainforest Task 6.

Monitoring and auditing techniques shown to be effective in the GBR would likely be effective for monitoring status and trends in nearshore reef systems elsewhere in the tropics.

Objectives

• Develop, validate and apply new tools for the cost-effective assessment and monitoring of nearshore water quality in the GBR (passive chemical sampling, satellite ocean color imagery).

• Prepare, validate and disseminate clear protocols for the application of the new monitoring tools developed as a basis for ongoing monitoring of water quality status in and effects on the GBRWHA.

• Conduct a preliminaryinvestigation of absorbent materials which might be suitable for passive sampling of inorganic nitrogen species in marine waters.