Management Concern: High    

Adequacy of Information: Low

Summary extracts from Outlook Report 2009

• Little is known about most symbiotic relationships
  
• Increased concentrations of suspended sediments and agricultural chemicals are having significant effects inshore close to agricultural areas. Much continues to be done to improve water quality entering the Great Barrier Reef but it will be decades before the benefits are seen.

What do we know?

Relevant pages from Outlook Online include:

• Scientific consensus statement on water quality in the Great Barrier Reef
  
• Reef exposure to river contaminants ecosystem risk index
  
• Catchment influence on the Great Barrier Reef
  
• Inshore Reef Health
  
• Water quality effects on hard coral richness
  
• Water quality effects on richness of phototrophic octocorals
  
• Water quality effects on richness of heterotrophic octocorals
  
• Water quality in the GBR - guidelines and current status
• River mouth monitoring - nutrient, sediment and pesticide loads
• Development intensification and water quality pressures on the Great Barrier Reef ecosystems
  
• Great Barrier Reef exposure model: total suspended solids
• Inshore reef health - nutrient, sediment and pesticide loads
• Land-sourced pollutants and their impacts on water quality 
• Changes in algal, coral and fish assemblages along water quality gradients
  
• Rapid smothering of coral reef organisms by muddy marine snow
  
• Terrestrial run-off and its effects on reef ecology  
  
• Role of elevated organic carbon and microbial activity in coral mortality
  

Existing policies and management actions

• Water Quality Guidelines for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (2009)
  
• Regional Water Quality Improvement Plans
  
• Reef Rescue Marine Monitoring Program
• Improving water quality
• Coastal ecosystem protection

Future management requirements

• Future management requirements in this area are being guided by ongoing assessment of emerging research outcomes and issues identified by the Great Barrier Reef Outlook Report 2009.

Defined research questions

• There are currently no defined research questions for this topic. Research questions will be developed, giving priority to interactions/issues that are of most concern to management.

Related information

• Current Research and Monitoring