Articles
The Torres Strait marine environment contains a relatively shallow (<20m) and highly productive stretch of seawater between the tip of Queensland and Papua New Guinea. It straddles the juncture of the Indian Ocean (Arafura sea) with the Pacific Ocean (Coral Sea), resulting in complex patterns of influence from the two ocean systems, including complicated tides and currents, and high biodiversity. Torres Strait contains over 100 islands, and a diversity of marine habitats including coral reefs, seagrass meadows, and rich benthic garden communities.
Introduction
Coral reefs in the coastal and inshore zones of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) are highly valued for recreation and local tourism, but their proximity to land exposes these reefs to land runoff carrying excess amounts of fine sediments and nutrients from developed catchments. The land management initiatives under the Australian and Queensland Government's Reef Water Quality Protection Plan 2013 (Reef Plan) are key tools to improve the water quality entering the GBR and will, in the long-term, improve the environmental conditions for inshore coral reefs. Long-term monitoring of 32 inshore reefs (Figure 1) is part of the Reef Plan and is fundamental to determine the condition of inshore coral reefs and long-term trends related to Reef Plan’s actions on the catchment.
The condition of coral communities on inshore reefs of the GBR has been in a state of decline in recent years. The ninth MMP inshore coral reef survey completed in 2013 demonstrated the halting and reversal of these declines in all regions with the exception of the Fitzroy Region (Figure 2). Observed declines in coral community composition can be attributed to exposure to extreme weather events, including tropical cyclones and flooding in combination with responses to chronic environmental stress. The return to more moderate levels of runoff in 2013 and a lack of cyclone damage has allowed coral communities to begin to recover. Severe flooding in the Fitzroy Region again in 2013 has ensured the continued very poor condition of corals in that region.
There is an updated version of the details of this part of the MMP monitoring program.
TRaCK (Tropical Rivers and Coastal Knowledge) is a research hub which has drawn together more than 70 of Australia's leading social, cultural, environmental and economic researchers. Our research focuses on the tropical north of Australia from Cape York to Broome.
The TRaCK Digital Atlas has been developed to provide a durable and centralised metadata repository for all of TRaCK’s significant intellectual output. All the mapping layers from the TRaCK Digital Atlas are now available in the e-Atlas mapping system.
As part of its commitment under Theme 5 of the MTSRF, the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre publishes, or makes available, outputs (e.g. final technical or scientific reports, synthesis reports) from MTSRF-funded research projects nested within Research Themes 1-4.
This report provides an overview of the key findings of research conducted through the Marine and Tropical Sciences Research Facility (MTSRF) designed to improve our understanding of the linkages between catchment and reef processes, and how the quality of water from paddock, sub-catchment, catchment and marine systems can directly and indirectly influence the ecological functioning of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). The research aimed to inform and facilitate management action and remediation to reduce, restore and increase resilience of the inshore GBR ecosystems. The research findings are also applicable elsewhere, particularly in tropical ecosystems, but many outcomes can be translated for broader application in catchment and marine ecosystem management.
Access and download PowerPoint slides (in PDF) prepared by Jane Waterhouse, C2O Consulting, for presentation to government agencies involved in water quality management in the GBR.
This article provides a brief review of the Coral Sea, and lists the main body of literature written about this important geographic region. The Coral Sea hosts a high diversity of geomorphic and oceanographic features, giving rise to numerous habitats and ecosystems, from abyssal seafloor over 4,000 m deep to vegetated coral cays above the ocean’s surface. This area hosts important habitats and migration corridors that sustain unique assemblages of organisms. Many of the Coral Sea’s ecosystems and ecological processes remain to be explored and described through scientific research.
This report provides a synthesis of research on climate change and coastal science in the Torres Strait, and has been produced for the Australian Government’s Marine and Tropical Sciences Research Facility (MTSRF). It identifies and summarises work to date on reef evolution, hydrodynamics and sedimentary environments throughout the Torres Strait. It describes the island dynamics at Boigu, Saibai, Masig, Poruma, Warraber and Iama Islands. Numerous studies relating to climatic change are reviewed and the most relevant regional predictions for climate change in the Torres Strait are presented. The potential physical and ecological impacts of these changes in the Torres Strait are also identified. Adaptation and mitigation measures are suggested and their outcomes and consequences are evaluated. The key principles from sustainable land use plans on the islands are summarised and knowledge gaps in the fields of both coastal and climatic science are identified to guide future research.
As part of its commitment under Theme 5 of the MTSRF, the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre publishes, or makes available, outputs (e.g. final technical or scientific reports, synthesis reports) from MTSRF-funded research projects nested within Research Themes 1-4.
Researchers funded through the Australian Government’s Marine and Tropical Sciences Research Facility (MTSRF) have worked closely with Torres Strait communities to improve our understanding of both the vulnerability of Torres Strait islands to climate change, and their adaptation capacity.
As part of its commitment under Theme 5 of the MTSRF, the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre publishes, or makes available, outputs (e.g. final technical or scientific reports, synthesis reports) from MTSRF-funded research projects nested within Research Themes 1-4.
In response to the needs of managers of the Great Barrier Reef, a key focus area of the Australian Government's Marine and Tropical Sciences Research Facility (MTSRF) has been the development of thresholds of pollutants of concern in freshwater, estuarine and marine ecosystems. The outcomes of this research are summarised in this report, starting with an overview of new knowledge of the impacts of degraded water quality, and outlining how this work has been translated into threshold values and, ultimately in some cases, management guidelines for the GBR.
As part of its commitment under Theme 5 of the MTSRF, the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre publishes, or makes available, outputs (e.g. final technical or scientific reports, synthesis reports) from MTSRF-funded research projects nested within Research Themes 1-4.
The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is a diverse ecosystem, which is bounded on its western side by a large number of large and small catchments. Protecting GBR ecosystems and the quality of the water they rely upon has become a major priority for resource managers and the community as a whole. Water quality and ecosystem health monitoring is needed to assess current status, identify existing and emerging problems, evaluate the consequences of various anthropogenic land and water use practices, devise improved practices and assess the effectiveness of management measures.
As part of its commitment under Theme 5 of the MTSRF, the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre publishes, or makes available, outputs (e.g. final technical or scientific reports, synthesis reports) from MTSRF-funded research projects nested within Research Themes 1-4.
In the Wet Tropics of Queensland, tropical rainforest covered an estimated 965,000 ha prior to European settlement of the area during the 19th and 20th centuries. Subsequent human impacts resulted in a reduction in the area of rainforest to approximately 750,000 ha.
Here, Tng and others explore the rates of landscape change and landscape conditions associated with rainforest expansion in the Wet Tropics World Heritage region of northeastern Queensland. They assess change in rainforest in a 270 square kilometre study area within the Wet Tropics Bioregion, and ask to what extent rates of rainforest change were similar for particular time periods and mediated by climatic and landscape conditions.
Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi crossed the Queensland coast near Mission Beach on the night of the 2nd February 2011. This page shows satellite images (from NASA's MODIS satellites) of the disturbance to the Great Barrier Reef, damage to the vegetation in Mission beach and Cardwell area and flood plumes along the North Queensland coast.
This page shows the extent of the flood plumes of the Fitzroy, Burnett, Mary and Brisbane Rivers caused by the extensive flooding that occurred in Queensland in December 2010 and January 2011. These flood plume maps were produced as part of the Reef Rescue Marine Monitoring Program - Assessment of terrestrial run-off entering the Great Barrier Reef project by James Cook University (contact Michelle Devlin). They were based on visual inspection of NASA MODIS satellite images and were created for days where the cloud cover was low enough to see the boundary of the plumes.