Management Concern: High    

Adequacy of Information: Low

Summary extracts from Outlook Report 2009

• Most species and habitats remain adequately connected; connectivity between marine habitats and adjacent freshwater habitats has been reduced.
  
• Every part of the ecosystem is connected in many ways to other parts. It follows that any form of degradation in one area may ultimately affect many others.  Climate change, including increased seawater temperature, increased sea level, increased weather variability and ocean acidification will have far reaching direct, indirect and cumulative impacts across the whole ecosystem, many of which are not known or well understood.

What do we know?

Relevant pages from Outlook Online include:

• Larval retention and connectivity among populations of corals and reef fishes: history advances and challenges
  
• Ecological connectivity in the Great Barrier Reef
  
• Connectivity, biodiversity conservation, and the design of marine reserve networks for coral reefs
  
• Incorporating connectivity science into coral reef management
  
• Migration of Humpback whales along the Australian east coast
  
• Seabird population connectivities
  
• Booby population connectivites within and outside the GBR
  
• Seabirds as indicators of open ocean ecology
  
• Black marlin movements on Great Barrier Reef
  
• Movement heterogeneity of dugongs over large spatial scales
  
• Migration of green and loggerhead turtles to and from eastern Australian rookeries
  
• Long-distance migrations by hawksbill turtles from north-eastern Australia
• Coral trout movements
• Dugong movement in the Townsville-Cardwell region
  

Existing policies and management actions

• Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999: Protection of Migratory Species
  
• Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Zoning Plan
  
• State Coastal Management Plan 2002 
• Coastal Ecosystem Management Position Paper
• Australian Government policy on climate change 
• Queensland Government climate change policies and strategies 
• Climate Change Action Plan 2007-2012

Future management requirements

• Draft Queensland Coastal Management Plan
  
• Biodiversity strategy

Defined research questions

• Is climate change having an impact on dispersal patterns and reef connectivity, especially through changing circulation patterns?

Related information

• Current Research and Monitoring