Extreme weather conditions in the Great Barrier Reef: drivers of change?

There has been a well-recognized link between declining water quality and the ecological health of coastal ecosystems. A strong driver of water quality change in the Great Barrier Reef (hereafter GBR) is the pulsed or intermittent nature of terrestrial inputs into marine ecosystems, particularly close to the coast. Delivery of potentially detrimental terrestrial inputs (freshwater, sediments, nutrients and toxicants, typically via flood plumes) will be exacerbated under modelled climate change scenarios and presents an on-going risk to the resilience and survival of inshore GBR ecosystems. This paper presents an overview of flow and water quality associated with extreme weather conditions experienced in the GBR over the 2010 – 2011 wet season. Water quality data collected during this period within the Reef Rescue Marine Monitoring Program is presented, including the spatial and temporal extent of the water quality conditions measured by in-situ sampling and satellite imagery. The consequence of the long wet season has had profound impacts on the people living and working within the Queensland coastal area, but may also be the driver of large scale reported decline in the many inshore seagrass systems and coral reefs and species that rely on these habitats, with concerns for the recovery potential of these impacted ecosystems.

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12th International Coral Reef Symposium

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978-0-9808572-5-2

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