Recent datasets

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.

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.

The eAtlas is a free public website (http://eatlas.org.au) that brings together environmental research data and knowledge from multiple organizations and research programs into one place. It ensures that research data is discoverable, well documented, accessible and reusable now and into the future. In goal of this project was for the eAtlas team to work with National Environmental Science Program Tropical Water Quality (NESP TWQ) hub researchers to: - Assist and support them with data management.

The CoTS IPM program designed an ecologically informed control program that integrates knowledge of the spatial and temporal dynamics of CoTS outbreaks and the operations of onwater control to provide: 1. the most efficient strategies for investing management effort at all scales of management; 2. an operational framework for the control program, and, iii) to identify and fill key research gaps.

This project derived Ecologically Relevant Targets (ERTs) for sediment loads for the Burdekin basin and provided the seagrass desired state across the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) by; 1. defining seagrass desired state for the GBR; 2. calculating light requirements; and 3. calculating ERTs for terrestrially sourced sediment loads, using Cleveland Bay as a case study. Historical and new data collections were compiled and used to derive ERTs via statistical models and eReefs Relocatable Coastal Model (RECOM), and the seagrass submodel in eReefs was used to test ERTs.

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Recent research has shown that only a portion of the fine sediment fraction delivered from rivers draining into the Great Barrier Reef Lagoon (GBRL) reaches coral reefs and seagrass meadows. The specific sources of this sediment, which affects the health of corals and seagrasses, are as yet unresolved. This project, for the first time, characterised and traced the origin(s), fate and nutrient bioavailability of this environmentally detrimental sediment using samples collected in flood plumes and during resuspension events.

The Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan and Reef 2050 Water Quality Improvement Plan 2017-2022 have set ambitious targets for Great Barrier Reef (GBR) water quality improvement. Indeed, Water Quality Improvement Plans (WQIP) for most NRMs in the Great Barrier Reef catchments recognise that complete adoption of sugar cane best management practices will still not be sufficient to achieve the nitrogen load reductions required to meet the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) Water Quality Guidelines.

Understanding cumulative impacts from multiple stressors will be critical for successful management of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) under the Reef2050 Plan. This project produced experimental analyses of concentration-response relationships for selected species under broad, controlled envelopes of local stressors at different climate scenarios. Results informed assessments of ecological risks, and management opportunities for a range of activities in the coastal zone and on the GBR.

This research project responded to the urgent need of understanding how ecological changes affect the aesthetic value and the user experience of the Great Barrier Reef, and how these are measured and monitored in a cost-effective way. The research capitalised on two major trends, namely peoples’ ability and willingness to share large amounts of information through various online platforms, and rapid development in computing technology to store, process and interpret these data.

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There is significant Government investment in water quality improvement focused on reducing gully erosion (~$50M), however, there is limited measured data to demonstrate the effectiveness of the remediation approaches. This project is collected land condition, terrain and water quality data from five gully remediation trial sites in the Burdekin catchment. The data demonstrated whether the on-ground investment programs are actually improving measured water quality, and quantified the cost-effectiveness of the various approaches.

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.

This dataset contains records of sting events and specimen samples of jellyfish (Irukanji, Halo irukanji, Box jellyfish and Morbakka) from the Venomous Jellyfish Database. This dataset contains an extract of 1081 sting events (in CSV format) from along the north Queensland coast between December 1883 to March 2017. The full database contains approximately 3000 sting events from around Australia and includes records from sources that have not yet been cleared for release.

This dataset contains data from experiments testing the survival of fertilised Acropora millepora gametes before and after settlement in different climate and sediment treatment conditions. One datafile shows the development and survival until competency for settlement, which has been tested at the National Sea Simulator. A second file demonstrates the settlement success after development in these treatments. Successful recruitment is crucial for the survival and repopulation of coral reefs.