Reef Plan monitoring of inshore water quality, Great Barrier Reef (RRMMP)

This data collection was started in 2005 as part of the Reef Plan. \n \nNearshore water quality data from direct water sampling by Niskin cast (suspended solids; chlorophyll; nitrogen, phosphorus and organic carbon species; silicate), summarised for the whole Great Barrier Reef and for each Natural Resource Management (NRM) region, by year (2005/06, 2006/07, etc.) and season (dry season, May-Oct; and wet season, Nov-Apr). Salinity, secchi depth, and temprature. \n \nFrom October 2007 data loggers are deployed at 14 sites to record readings of chlorophyll a and turbidity every 10 minutes. \n \nWater column profiles of salinity, temperature and turbidity (as % transmission) using CTD casts. \n \nGeographic areas (note not all locations have all data in all years/seasons) relate to the NRM regions: mainly Wet Tropics NRM, Burdekin NRM, Mackay Whitsunday NRM, Fitzroy NRM, some mention of Burnett Mary NRM and Cape York NRM. \n \nFrom 2008 sampling points are focused close to inshore reefs.\n Data forms a baseline for assessing future changes in water quality on inshore reefs of the Great Barrier Reef. \n \nObjectives are to: Determine persistent spatial patterns and, where long-term data are already available, long-term (decadal) trends in inshore coral communities within the Great Barrier Reef lagoon, particularly in inshore habitats most directly affected by river runoff; and to explore the usefulness of autonomous instruments for high-frequency measurements of local water quality at inshore reef sites. \n \nThe key aim of turbidity measurement is to detect long-term trends, if any, in loads of sediments delivered to the mouths of significant or representative rivers entering the Great Barrier Reef lagoon, and thereby, to assist assessments of the effectiveness of land-based delivery reduction measures under the Reef Plan. \n \nOngoing, direct monitoring of lagoon waters to provide data for those variables that cannot be measured by instrumental methods or remote sensing techniques (e.g. organic matter, nutrients and pesticides) and to provide suitable high quality validation data for the remote sensing and instrumentation approaches \n \nThe reef monitoring sites are close to the sampling locations for lagoon water quality to assess the relationship between changes in reef communities and changes in water quality as well as other more acute impacts.\n These data are collected in conjunction with another dataset, Inshore Coral Reef Communities, see separate metadata record. \n \nMonitoring stations: Archer Point, Barolin Rocks, Barren Island, Barron River, Bedford, Black Rocks Reef, Boyne River, Burdekin River, Burkitts Reef, Burnett River, Cape Melville, Cape Tribulation, Cardwell, Cid Island, Coconut Beach Reef, Codhole, Colosseum Inlet, Cooktown, Daintree Reefs, Daydream Island, Dent Island, Dolphin Pass, Double Cone Island, Double Rocks, Dunk Island, Fitzroy Island, Fitzroy River, Frankland Group, Geoffrey Bay, Gladstone, Green Island, Halftide Rocks, Harrier Reef, Havannah Island, Henning Island, Herbert River, Hervey Bay, Heron Island, High Island, Hoffman's Rocks, Hook Island, Humpy & Halfway Island, Jesse Island, John Brewer Reef, Johnstone River, King Reef, Lady Elliot Reef, Lindeman Island, Lockhart River, Log Reef, Long Island, Low Isles, Mackay Marina, Magnetic Island, Mantis Reef, Middle Island, Middle Reef, Mission Beach, Mulgrave River, Night Island, Normanby Island, Normanby River, North Barnard Group, North Keppel Island, Northwest Island, O'Connell River, Orpheus Island, Osprey Reef, Outer Rock, Oyster Rocks, Pandora Reef, Peak Island, Pelican Island, Pelorus Island, Pine Island, Pioneer Bay, Pioneer River, Port Douglas, Rodda Reef, Rosslyn Bay, Russell River, Sarina Inlet, Seaforth Island, Seal Rocks, Shelley & Bushland Beach, Shoalwater Bay, Shute Harbour, Shute & Tancred Island, the Lillies, Snapper Island, Strickland, Tannum-Boyne coast, Townsville Channel, Tully River, Urangan and Booral, Wallace Islet, Weary Bay, Wild Cattle Creek, Wreck Point. \n \nFour cross-shelf transects for chlorophyll monitoring were also carried out; locations/sites not already included in inshore locations: Agincourt Reef, Black Rocks Reef, Barron River, Cairns Outer Marker, Ellie Point-Lyons Point, Green Island, Line Reef, Michaelmas Cay, Midshelf (or Dolphin Pass), Moore Reef, Princes Wharf, Rudder Reef, Saxon Reef, Strickland.\n