Towards ecologically relevant targets for river pollutant loads to the Great Barrier Reef

Kroon, Frederieke J.

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2011.10.030

Cited by 43 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Wulff et al, 2007), including in individual GBR basins (Brodie et al, 2009b). At the GBR scale, linking GBR water quality guidelines (Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, 2010) with our anthropogenic load estimates has provided a firstorder estimate of load reductions required to achieve these guidelines (Kroon, 2012). Whilst Kroon's (2012) first-order estimates need further refinement with improvements in linked catchment and receiving water models at the GBR scale (Kroon and Brodie, 2009), they suggest that Reef Plan targets may not achieve the necessary water quality improvement to protect the GBR ecosystem, particularly in the face of climate change (Wooldridge, 2009).…”

Section: Implications For Management Of the Great Barrier Reef Ecosysmentioning

confidence: 99%

River loads of suspended solids, nitrogen, phosphorus and herbicides delivered to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon

Kroon

Kuhnert

Henderson

et al. 2012

Marine Pollution Bulletin

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249

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Section: Implications For Management Of the Great Barrier Reef Ecosysmentioning

confidence: 99%

River loads of suspended solids, nitrogen, phosphorus and herbicides delivered to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon

Kroon

Kuhnert

Henderson

et al. 2012

Marine Pollution Bulletin

Self Cite

347

249

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…In some cases, it may be necessary to treat areas with naturally high rates of erosion to compensate for areas under agricultural development that are difficult to manage for erosion. Either way, these physically-based erosion rates would represent a more robust 'bench-mark' erosion rate that would be more suited to estimating ecologically relevant targets (Kroon, 2012). They would be a great improvement on the current sediment water quality 'targets' that are relatively arbitrary .…”

Section: Management Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combining contemporary and long-term erosion rates to target erosion hot-spots in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia

et al. 2015

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Highlights This paper presents the first non-modelled estimates of contemporary measured erosion rates against background long term erosion rates in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) catchments. Using an accelerated erosion factor (AEF), this study has highlighted that there are very specific 'hot-spot' areas that warrant priority treatment in terms of catchment remediation (Bowen sub-catchment, Upper Burdekin sub-catchment and low cover grazing areas). Due to the large intra-catchment variability of erosion in space and time, this study highlights that having a single end of catchment water quality target is inappropriate. Sub-catchment monitoring and evaluation is more suitable. The erosion rates presented in this paper represent a more robust way to 'bench-mark' current erosion rates compared with the current water quality 'targets'. AbstractMethods for prioritising catchment remediation are based on understanding the source of sediment over the short-medium timescales (10-10 2 years) using techniques such as sediment finger-printing, sediment flux monitoring, and catchment modelling. Because such approaches do not necessarily quantify the natural variation in sediment flux over the longer timescale, they often represent background or pre-agricultural erosion rates poorly. This study compares long-term (~100 to >10,000 years) erosion rates derived from terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides ( 10 Be) with contemporary erosion rates obtained by monitoring sediment fluxes over ~5-10 years. The ratio of these two data sets provides a measure of the accelerated erosion factor (AEF), which can be used to identify erosion hot-spots at the sub-catchment scale. The study area is the Burdekin catchment, the largest source of contemporary sediment to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon. Long-term erosion rates vary from <0.0077 mm yr -1 in the Suttor and Belyando subcatchments to 0.0296 mm yr -1 in the Bowen. The contemporary erosion rates are highest on small hillslopes with patchy ground cover (0.2726 mm yr -1 ) and in the Bowen sub-catchment (0.2207 mm yr -1 ), and lowest in the Belyando sub-catchment (0.0019 mm yr -1 ). All but two of the sub-catchment sites have an AEF > 1.0, indicating higher contemporary erosion rates than estimated long-term averages. Results confirm that the contemporary or agriculturally-induced erosion rates at these sites have increased considerably. Within the context of the Reef Water Quality Protection Plan, these results provide justification for water quality targets to be set at the sub-catchment scale, particularly for large and geomorphically diverse catchments.

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“…December-April, inclusive) with river plume maps derived from MODIS true colour imagery (Figure 6c) and annual monitored end-of-catchment pollutant load [79]. River discharge in the wet season accounts for 78% of the total annual discharge (Department of Natural Resources and Mines, http://watermonitoring.dnrm.qld.gov.au/host.htm), so even though water quality parameters and river plume maps are for the wet season period only, they are used to produce annual load maps by incorporating annual pollutant loads delivered into the GBR for each river [80][81][82]. The in situ water quality data provides the pollutant mass variation as a function of the movement of the river plume away from the river mouth.…”

Section: Wet Season Wq Products From True Colour (Level-1 Data) (Tablmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water Quality and River Plume Monitoring in the Great Barrier Reef: An Overview of Methods Based on Ocean Colour Satellite Data

et al. 2015

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A strong driver of water quality change in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is the pulsed or intermittent nature of terrestrial inputs into the GBR lagoon, including delivery of increased loads of sediments, nutrients, and toxicants via flood river plumes (hereafter river plumes) during the wet season. Cumulative pressures from extreme weather with a high frequency of large scale flooding in recent years has been linked to the large scale reported decline in the health of inshore seagrass systems and coral reefs in the central areas of the GBR, with concerns for the recovery potential of these impacted ecosystems. Management authorities currently rely on remotely-sensed (RS) and in situ data for water quality monitoring to guide their assessment of water quality conditions in the GBR. The use of remotely-sensed satellite products provides a quantitative and accessible tool for scientists and managers. These products, coupled with in situ data, and more recently modelled data, are valuable for quantifying the influence of river plumes on seagrass and coral reef habitat in the GBR. This article reviews recent remote sensing techniques developed to monitor river plumes and water quality in the GBR. We also discuss emerging research that integrates hydrodynamic models with remote sensing and in situ OPEN ACCESS Remote Sens. 2015, 7 12910 data, enabling us to explore impacts of different catchment management strategies on GBR water quality.

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Towards ecologically relevant targets for river pollutant loads to the Great Barrier Reef

Cited by 43 publications

References 43 publications

River loads of suspended solids, nitrogen, phosphorus and herbicides delivered to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon

River loads of suspended solids, nitrogen, phosphorus and herbicides delivered to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon

Combining contemporary and long-term erosion rates to target erosion hot-spots in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Water Quality and River Plume Monitoring in the Great Barrier Reef: An Overview of Methods Based on Ocean Colour Satellite Data

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