GBRMPA Reef Plan Monitoring

As part its role in implementing the Reef Water Quality Protection Plan (Reef Plan). the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority established the Reef Plan Marine Monitoring Programme (Reef Plan MMP) in 2005 to track trends in the amount of sediment, nutrients and other pollutants entering GBR waters, the status of water quality within receiving waters, and the condition of key biological communities influenced by water quality.

This monitoring program builds upon a number of previous and current long-term research and monitoring projects, largely conducted by AIMS, which provide essential baseline information about the status of water quality in reef and regional river waters and of marine ecosystems.

AIMS is a key provider of the following monitoring activities:

• River Mouth Monitoring - Estimation of discharge-weighted annual loads of total suspended sediment in six priority rivers (Tully, N-Johnstone, Herbert, Burdekin, Pioneer and Fitzroy rivers).
• Nearshore Marine Water Quality monitoring - Measurement of water column temperature, salinity, turbidity, and nutrient, chlorophyll and suspended sediment concentrations in inshore waters from the Daintree to Keppel Bay.
  Continuation of the long-term chlorophyll monitoring from the Far Northern GBR lagoon to the Bundaberg coast.
• Marine Biological Monitoring (AIMS, DPI&F, Sea Research) - Assessment of cover of inshore reef benthic organisms (hard and soft corals, algae), coral demography and coral recruitment rates from the Daintree to Keppel Bay.

Related link:

GBRMPA Marine Monitoring Report 2006

March 6, 2008