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Secchi Disk Depth (a measure of water clarity)

Posted on 16 January 2009

This study characterises spatial patterns in water clarity. Water clarity is a key indicator for water quality and is an essential environmental factor for phototrophic organisms that dominate coral reefs, seagrass meadows and the seafloor microphytobenthos. Secchi disk depthis a commonly used standardised way to quantify water clarity.

This data set combines Secchi disk depth data collected as a one-off survey systematically covering the whole Great Barrier Reef by the seagrass monitoring project of the Queensland Department of Primary industry and Fisheries (QDPI-F), and data collected on an opportunistic basis by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS).

  • B. Schaffelke (AIMS)
  • R. Coles (QDPI-F)
  • M. Furnas (AIMS)
Custodian(s)
  • Australian Institute of Marine Science
  • Queensland Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries (QDPI-F)
Owner Institution(s)

Secchi disk depth: m.

Data Units
Great Barrier Reef (whole GBR).
Region & Spatial Extent
1992 - 2006
Data Collection
Ongoing.
Maintenance & Update Frequency
The copyright remains with the data owners.
Resource Constraints

- Death G (2007) The Spatial, Temporal and Structural Composition of Water Quality of the Great Barrier Reef, and Indicators of Water Quality and Mapping Risk. Report to the Australian Government’s Marine and Tropical Sciences Research Facility. 59 pp.

- De’ath G, Fabricius KE (2008) Water quality of the Great Barrier Reef: distributions, effects on reef biota and trigger values for the protection of ecosystem health. Final Report to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville: 104 pp

- Coles R et al (submitted)

References
Google Earth Data
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