Recent datasets

Despite the seemingly abundant opportunities, Indigenous Traditional Owners of the Great Barrier Reef appear to show little interest in participating in the lucrative coral reef tourism industry. This project seeks to understand why this is so, canvass TO attitudes to the industry, map out the opportunities for their participation in both mainstream and Indigenous-initiated ventures, and provide an assessment of current obstacles and what can be done to mitigate them.

This research was conducted to understand the relationship between water quality and ecological attributes on coral reef communities, through field surveys on naturally turbid inshore coral reefs that vary in exposure to water bourne sediment, nutrient and chlorophyll concentrations. Reefs in two regions were surveyed for biodiversity of algae, hard corals, octocorals and fish. Region PC: Princess Charlotte Bay (in the Claremont Isles, north of PC Bay) and and Region WT: Wet Tropics (between Tully and Port Douglas).

This dataset contains the results of the water quality monitoring program conducted across the Russell-Mulgrave catchment (south of Cairns) for "Project 25". Project 25 spanned two (2) NESP TWQ projects: 2.1.7 (2016 - 2018) and 4.8 (2019 - 2020), with the dataset for Project 4.8 also containing the data for Project 2.1.7. Data is the result of discrete ‘grab’ samples analysed at TropWATER JCU laboratory for nutrients and sediments.

This dataset contains benthic photosynthetically active radiation (PAR; bPAR) at the Q-IMOS Myrmidon, Palm Passage and Heron Island South mooring stations from May 2016 through to November 2017. This dataset was collected to provide in situ reference data for calibration/validation of a remote sensing ocean color model to estimate bPAR (benthic photosynthetically active radiation) as part of NESP Tropical Water Quality Hub project 2.3.1.

This dataset summarises the results of a survey of water quality and suspended solid metal data for ten (10) sites around Saibai and Boigu Islands in the Torres Strait during November 2018. This is the second survey for this project, where the first survey identified the area around Saibai as having elevated metal concentrations compared to other areas of the Torres Strait. This survey was conducted to investigate this finding. Water samples were collected from five sites around Saibai Island and five sites around Boigu Island.

This dataset shows the results of mapping the connectivity of key values (natural heritage, indigenous heritage, social and historic and economic) of the Great Barrier Reef with its neighbouring regions (Torres Strait, Coral Sea and Great Sandy Strait). The purpose of this mapping process was to identify values that need joint management across multiple regions. It contains a spreadsheet containing the connection information obtained from expert elicitation, all maps derived from this information and all GIS files needed to recreate these maps.

This dataset consists of three data files (spreadsheets) from a two month aquarium experiment manipulating pCO2 and light, and measuring the physiological response (photosynthesis, growth, protein and pigment content) of the adult and juvenile stages of two species of tropical corals (Acropora tenuis and A. hyacinthus). Methods: We conducted a two-month, 24-tank experiment at AIMS’s SeaSim facility, in which recently settled juvenile- and adult-colonies of the corals Acropora tenuis and A.

This dataset summarises the results of a survey to determine the concentration of trace metals from mine-derived pollution in marine waters and sediments across the Torres Strait during October 2016. Sampling was performed by a CSIRO team between 3 and 16 October 2016 on board the MV Eclipse. Surface water samples were collected from 21 sites using strict sampling protocols that are designed to minimise contamination (USEPA, 1996; Angel et al., 2010b).

The dataset consists of four data files from a 20-day experiment to investigate different photophysiological responses of two species of coral (Acropora millepora and Pachyseris speciosa) to constant and variable daily light integrals. Methods: Eight partial colonies each of Pachyseris speciosa (from 5 – 8 m depth) and Acropora millepora (from 3 – 5 m depth) were collected from Davies Reef, central Great Barrier Reef, Australia (-18.823390, 147.6518563) in July 2016, and taken to the National Sea Simulator at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), Townsville.

The dataset consists of tables of means, with statistical differences indicated where they are significant, for measured crop performance, fertilizer N recovery and use efficiency at 6 field sites from Mackay to Freshwater. Runoff losses of N are also shown from sites at Freshwater and Silkwood. **This dataset is currently under embargo until December 2021.

The climatology of the GBR temperature loggers is based on the hourly registers from loggers with 10 or more years of data, up to 2012 and for "Slope" and "Flat" locations on the reef. The climatology is important as a reference point for comparison of future values. It also allows to compute the anomalies which represent the deviations from an established baseline. The data comes from the AIMS temperature loggers program and contains temperature registers as old as from 1991, providing for some sites, a time series of water temperature for more that 28 years.

This dataset resulted from two inter-linked research streams. The first stream was related to the application of eye-tracking technology and an online survey in studying natural beauty. The second stream is related to the development of an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based system recognising and assessing the beauty of natural scenes. Due to differences in data collection and data analysis, details of research methods used for each research stream are described in three separated data records. This record that describes the common elements and goals of the three parts to the research.

This dataset shows the tiling grid and their Row and Path IDs for Landsat 4 - 9 satellite imagery. The IDs are useful for selecting imagery of an area of interest. Landsat 4 - 9 are a series of Earth observation satellites, part of the US Landsat program aimed at monitoring Earth's land surfaces since 1982. The Worldwide Reference System (WRS) is a global notation system used for cataloging and indexing Landsat imagery.

This dataset consists of one data file presenting data from 4 experiments conducted under aquarium controlled conditions manipulating levels of suspended sediments, temperature and nutrient enrichment. The experiments measured the conditions effect on early life history stages like gamete fertilisation success, embryo development, larval survivorship and larval settlement of the coral Acropora tenuis.

This dataset presents the code written for the analysis and modelling for the Jellyfish Forecasting System for NESP TWQ Project 2.2.3. The Jellyfish Forecasting System (JFS) searches for robust statistical relationships between historical sting events (and observations) and local environmental conditions. These relationships are tested using data to quantify the underlying uncertainties. They then form the basis for forecasting risk levels associated with current environmental conditions.

The sugar industry occupies 350,000ha in Reef catchments, applies >55,000t of nitrogen (N) fertilizer annually and is a major contributor of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) to Great Barrier Reef receiving waters. There are many potential mechanisms for reducing on-farm Nusage. However, the comprehensive review of N use in sugarcane (SRA/DoE 2014) identified widespread over-use of N fertilizer and recommended adopting production zone yield potential (PZYP) combined with enhanced efficiency fertilizers (EEFs) to reduce ’surplus N’ (where applied N>crop requirements).

Runoff from the Fly River in Papua New Guinea (PNG) influences water quality conditions in the Torres Strait region. Recent work (NESP Project 2.2.1 and 2.2.2) has clearly demonstrated that this influence is largely constrained to the northern Torres Strait, as far east as Bramble Cay and at least as far west as Boigu Island. The southern extent of influence is considered to be limited to within 40-50km of the PNG coast in the western areas, and around 80km in the eastern areas. The intensity of this influence, and the potential ecological impacts, are still not well understood.

Accurately mapping gullies at high resolution and quantifying their key attributes is the critical first step in the process of prioritising and designing rehabilitation solutions. At least 40% of the accelerated erosion that is contributing to poor water quality in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR)Lagoon is sourced from gully erosion, demanding effective management and rehabilitation of these features. Current gully maps across the GBR are low resolution and overly simple,providing no differentiation between gully type.

The project is developed a water quality indicator based on benthic PAR (light penetrating to the seafloor). The project experimentally estimated irradiance thresholds for ecosystem health for the Great Barrier Reef and developed a new remote sensing algorithm to estimate and map benthic irradiance throughout the GBR. This fed into Reef Plan report cards, RIMReP monitoring, and assessments of drivers of cumulative risks.

Aesthetic condition and trend of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) are critical to monitor for the Reef 2050 Integrated Monitoring and Reporting Program (RIMReP), and World Heritage Area reporting. This research project designed and implemented an aesthetics long term monitoring program (ALTMP) for the GBR. It included a strong research component that identified how to convert a subjective measurement into an objective one.