Management Concern: High    

Adequacy of Information: Moderate

Summary extracts from Outlook Report 2009

• Exposure to nutrients has increased for much of the Great Barrier Reef , especially in inshore areas.
• 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:

• Terrestrial run-off and its effects on reef ecology 
• Reef Water Quality Protection Plan: marine monitoring 2008 report [3.5Mb]
• Enhanced levels of nitrogen and phosphorus entering the Great Barrier Reef 
• Feeding and nutrition of crown-of-thorns larvae 
• Other sources: shipping
• Upwelling at the outer-shelf of the Great Barrier Reef 
• Fertiliser use in the Great Barrier Reef catchment
• Historical nutrient usage in coastal river catchments adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
• Modelling of catchment pesticide and nutrient influences in the Great Barrier Reef
• Sources of sediment and nutrient exports to the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area
• River mouth monitoring - nutrient, sediment and pesticide loads 
• Inshore reef health - nutrient, sediment and pesticide loads
• Water quality in the Great Barrier Reef - guidelines and current status
• Marine Monitoring Program - catchment nutrient influence on the Great Barrier Reef
• Responses of seagrasses to nutrients in the Great Barrier Reef 
• Nutrient inputs and outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish 
• Importance of topographic and trophic complexity to reef nutrient dynamics
• The effects of nutrients and herbivory on competition between hard coral and a brown alga 
• Macroalgae, nutrients and phase shifts on coral reefs
• Development intensification and water quality pressures on the Great Barrier Reef ecosystems 
• Historical nutrient/fertilizer usage
• Historical nutrient/fertilizer usage II

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

• What are the implications of interactions, and any thresholds and synergies, between declining water quality and other broad-scale disturbances (e.g. crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks, storms, and mass coral bleaching)?
  
• What are the potential consequences of alternative land use and resource management systems on coral bleaching and ecological thresholds, and on social and economic systems in the Great Barrier Reef?
• What is the sensitivity of carbon and nutrient storage and cycling in wetland soils to climate change drivers?

Related information

• Current Research and Monitoring