NESP TWQ Round 2 - Project 2.3.1 - Benthic light as ecologically validated GBR wide indicator for water quality: drivers, thresholds and cumulative risks
The project developed a water quality indicator based on benthic irradiance (the amount of light penetrating to the seafloor). Using experiments and field data the project developed irradiance thresholds for measures of ecosystem health, and develop prototype guideline values. The project produced a new remote sensing algorithm of benthic irradiance, validated against open-water irradiance data and quantifed benthic irradiance throughout the GBR, near-daily over 14 years, and assess region-specific drivers of trends including river discharges. The indicator can directly feed into Reef Plan report cards, irradiance as a limiting factor, and about cumulative risks in the context of coral bleaching.
This project is continued under the NESP TWQ Round 5 - Project 5.3 – Benthic light as ecologically-validated GBR-wide indicator for water quality: Drivers, thresholds and cumulative risks
Datasets
This dataset contains estimated daily integrated benthic photosynthetically active radiation (bPAR) in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and Coral Sea for each day from July 2002 through to December 2019. Data are provided on a 1km grid.
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.
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 specie
This dataset contains estimates of diffuse attenuation coefficient (Kd) of downwelling irradiance at different wavelengths (412, 443, 469, 488, 531, 547, 555, 645, 667 and 678 nm) in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and Coral Sea for each day from July 2002
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.