Seagrass habitat of Cairns Harbour and Trinity Inlet: Cairns Shipping Development Program and Annual Monitoring Report 2019

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Reason, C.L.;McKenna, S.A.;Rasheed, M.A.
Abstract

Seagrasses have been monitored annually in Cairns Harbour and Trinity Inlet since 2001. Each year six seagrass monitoring meadows representing the range of different seagrass community types found in Cairns are mapped and assessed for changes in biomass and species composition. These metrics are then used to develop a seagrass condition index (Map 1). In addition to this annual long term seagrass monitoring program, an intensive quarterly monitoring of meadows adjacent to the shipping channel was conducted between October 2018 and December 2019 associated with the Cairns Shipping Development Project (CSDP) (Map 2). All seagrasses within the port limits are remapped every 3 years as part of the long term monitoring program but this has been increased to annually through to 2021 as part of conditions for the CSDP project. In addition to the established annual monitoring program, regular assessments of seagrass condition (quarterly), seed bank density and viability (annually), and benthic light (continuously logged) are conducted at a seagrass site within the Ellie Point to the Esplanade intertidal meadow (site E; Map 1), and the Bessie Point intertidal meadow (Site B, Map 1).

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20/06

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62

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TropWATER, James Cook University

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Cairns, QLD, Australia

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