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Reef Rescue Marine Monitoring Program - Inshore Water Quality of the Great Barrier Reef

Britta Schaffelke

Australian Institute of Marine Science

Posted on 15 March 2011

Regular monitoring of the water quality in the inshore GBR lagoon has commenced in 2005 as part of the Reef Rescue Marine Monitoring Program (MMP), which is supported by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, through funding from the Australian Government's Caring for our Country and the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

Water quality monitoring in the inshore lagoon is carried out at 14 fixed coral reef locations in four NRM regions, the Wet Tropics, Burdekin, Mackay Whitsunday and Fitzroy regions. Water quality is assessed by direct water sampling and laboratory analyses of a comprehensive suite of dissolved and particulate nutrients and carbon, suspended solids, chlorophyll a and salinity, as well as by continuously logging sensors for measurements of temperature, chlorophyll and turbidity (sinec October 2007).

Sampling of the longest available time series of water quality data for the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) in coastal waters between Cape Tribulation and Cairns from 1989 to the present was also continued under the MMP at six fixed open water sampling locations.

A summary of results for this dataset can be viewed in Google Earth using this KML. 

  • Britta Schaffelke
Custodian(s)
  • Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS)
  • Great Barrier Reef Marine Authority (GBRMPA)
Owner Institution(s)

All data are held in an Oracle database.

Parameters measured:

1) By direct water sampling:

Ammonium (µM)

Nitrate (µM)

Nitrite(µM)

Total dissolved nitrogen (µM)

Particulate nitrogen (µM)

Phosphate (µM)

Total dissolved phosphorus (µM)

Particulate phosphorus (µM)

Dissolved organic carbon (µM)

Particulate carbon (µM)

Chlorophyll a (µg L-1)

Total suspended solids (mg L-1)

Secchi depth (m)

Temperature (°C)

Salinity

  

2) By deployed instruments (WETLabs Eco FLNTUSB):

Chlorophyll (µg L-1)

Turbidity (NTU)

Temperature (°C)

Data Units
North bound latitude -23.1575 South bound latitude -23.1575 East bound longitude 151.0705 West bound longitude 151.0705
Region & Spatial Extent
2005 - 2010
Data Collection
ongoing program, updated at least annually
Maintenance & Update Frequency
Available for general disclosure upon request
Resource Constraints

Latest report:

Schaffelke B, Carleton J, Doyle J, Furnas M, Gunn K, Skuza M, Wright M, Zagorskis I (2010) Reef Rescue Marine Monitoring Program. Final Report of AIMS Activities – Inshore water quality monitoring 2009/10. Report for Reef and Rainforest Research Centre. Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville. (81 p.)

References
GBR_AIMS_Inshore-water-quality
Dataset Short Name
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