Dispersal of the pesticide diuron in the Great Barrier Reef.

Pesticides from urban and agricultural runoff have been detected at concentrations above current water quality guidelines in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) marine environment. We quantify the load of the pesticide diuron entering GBR waters using the GBR-Dynamic SedNet catchment model. After comparison of simulated distributions with observations at 11 monitoring sites we determined a half-life of diuron in GBR marine waters of 40 days. We followed diuron dispersal in the GBR (2016-2018) using the 1 km resolution eReefs marine model. The highest diuron concentrations in GBR waters occurred in the Mackay-Whitsunday region with a spike in January and March 2017, associated with 126 and 118 kg d-1 diuron loads from Plane Creek and the O'Connell River respectively. We quantify areas of GBR waters exposed to potentially ecotoxic concentrations of diuron. Between 2016 and 2018, 400 km2 and 1400 km2 of the GBR were exposed to concentrations exceeding ecosystem threshold values of 0.43 and 0.075 µg L-1 respectively. Using observed mapped coral and seagrass habitat, 175 km2 of seagrass beds and 50 km2 of coral habitats had peak diuron concentrations above 0.075 µg L-1 during this period. While the highest concentrations are localised to river plumes and inshore environments, non-zero diuron concentrations extend along the Queensland coast. These simulations provide new knowledge for the understanding of pesticide dispersal and management-use in GBR catchments and the design of in-water monitoring systems.

The effect of natural and anthropogenic nutrient and sediment loads on coral oxidative stress on runoff-exposed reefs.

Recently, corals on the Great Barrier (GBR) have suffered mass bleaching. The link between ocean warming and coral bleaching is understood to be due to temperature-dependence of complex physiological processes in the coral host and algal symbiont. Here we use a coupled catchment-hydrodynamic-biogeochemical model, with detailed zooxanthellae photophysiology including photoadaptation, photoacclimation and reactive oxygen build-up, to investigate whether natural and anthropogenic catchment loads impact on coral bleaching on the GBR. For the wet season of 2017, simulations show the cross-shelf water quality gradient, driven by both natural and anthropogenic loads, generated a contrasting zooxanthellae physiological state on inshore versus mid-shelf reefs. The relatively small catchment flows and loads delivered during 2017, however, generated small river plumes with limited impact on water quality. Simulations show the removal of the anthropogenic fraction of the catchment loads delivered in 2017 would have had a negligible impact on bleaching rates.

Large-scale interventions may delay decline of the Great Barrier Reef.

On the iconic Great Barrier Reef (GBR), the cumulative impacts of tropical cyclones, marine heatwaves and regular outbreaks of coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish (CoTS) have severely depleted coral cover. Climate change will further exacerbate this situation over the coming decades unless effective interventions are implemented. Evaluating the efficacy of alternative interventions in a complex system experiencing major cumulative impacts can only be achieved through a systems modelling approach. We have evaluated combinations of interventions using a coral reef meta-community model. The model consisted of a dynamic network of 3753 reefs supporting communities of corals and CoTS connected through ocean larval dispersal, and exposed to changing regimes of tropical cyclones, flood plumes, marine heatwaves and ocean acidification. Interventions included reducing flood plume impacts, expanding control of CoTS populations, stabilizing coral rubble, managing solar radiation and introducing heat-tolerant coral strains. Without intervention, all climate scenarios resulted in precipitous declines in GBR coral cover over the next 50 years. The most effective strategies in delaying decline were combinations that protected coral from both predation (CoTS control) and thermal stress (solar radiation management) deployed at large scale. Successful implementation could expand opportunities for climate action, natural adaptation and socioeconomic adjustment by at least one to two decades.

Impact of catchment-derived nutrients and sediments on marine water quality on the Great Barrier Reef: An application of the eReefs marine modelling system.

Water quality of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is determined by a range of natural and anthropogenic drivers that are resolved in the eReefs coupled hydrodynamic - biogeochemical marine model forced by a process-based catchment model, GBR Dynamic SedNet. Model simulations presented here quantify the impact of anthropogenic catchment loads of sediments and nutrients on a range of marine water quality variables. Simulations of 2011-2018 show that reduction of anthropogenic catchment loads results in improved water quality, especially within river plumes. Within the 16 resolved river plumes, anthropogenic loads increased chlorophyll concentration by 0.10 (0.02-0.25) mg Chl m-3. Reductions of anthropogenic loads following proposed Reef 2050 Water Quality Improvement Plan targets reduced chlorophyll concentration in the plumes by 0.04 (0.01-0.10) mg Chl m-3. Our simulations demonstrate the impact of anthropogenic loads on GBR water quality and quantify the benefits of improved catchment management.

Microbial tropicalization driven by a strengthening western ocean boundary current.

Western boundary currents (WBCs) redistribute heat and oligotrophic seawater from the tropics to temperate latitudes, with several displaying substantial climate change-driven intensification over the last century. Strengthening WBCs have been implicated in the poleward range expansion of marine macroflora and fauna, however, the impacts on the structure and function of temperate microbial communities are largely unknown. Here we show that the major subtropical WBC of the South Pacific Ocean, the East Australian Current (EAC), transports microbial assemblages that maintain tropical and oligotrophic (k-strategist) signatures, to seasonally displace more copiotrophic (r-strategist) temperate microbial populations within temperate latitudes of the Tasman Sea. We identified specific characteristics of EAC microbial assemblages compared with non-EAC assemblages, including strain transitions within the SAR11 clade, enrichment of Prochlorococcus, predicted smaller genome sizes and shifts in the importance of several functional genes, including those associated with cyanobacterial photosynthesis, secondary metabolism and fatty acid and lipid transport. At a temperate time-series site in the Tasman Sea, we observed significant reductions in standing stocks of total carbon and chlorophyll a, and a shift towards smaller phytoplankton and carnivorous copepods, associated with the seasonal impact of the EAC microbial assemblage. In light of the substantial shifts in microbial assemblage structure and function associated with the EAC, we conclude that climate-driven expansions of WBCs will expand the range of tropical oligotrophic microbes, and potentially profoundly impact the trophic status of temperate waters.

A database of chlorophyll a in Australian waters.

Chlorophyll a is the most commonly used indicator of phytoplankton biomass in the marine environment. It is relatively simple and cost effective to measure when compared to phytoplankton abundance and is thus routinely included in many surveys. Here we collate 173, 333 records of chlorophyll a collected since 1965 from Australian waters gathered from researchers on regular coastal monitoring surveys and ocean voyages into a single repository. This dataset includes the chlorophyll a values as measured from samples analysed using spectrophotometry, fluorometry and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The Australian Chlorophyll a database is freely available through the Australian Ocean Data Network portal (https://portal.aodn.org.au/). These data can be used in isolation as an index of phytoplankton biomass or in combination with other data to provide insight into water quality, ecosystem state, and relationships with other trophic levels such as zooplankton or fish.

The exposure of the Great Barrier Reef to ocean acidification.

The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is founded on reef-building corals. Corals build their exoskeleton with aragonite, but ocean acidification is lowering the aragonite saturation state of seawater (Ωa). The downscaling of ocean acidification projections from global to GBR scales requires the set of regional drivers controlling Ωa to be resolved. Here we use a regional coupled circulation-biogeochemical model and observations to estimate the Ωa experienced by the 3,581 reefs of the GBR, and to apportion the contributions of the hydrological cycle, regional hydrodynamics and metabolism on Ωa variability. We find more detail, and a greater range (1.43), than previously compiled coarse maps of Ωa of the region (0.4), or in observations (1.0). Most of the variability in Ωa is due to processes upstream of the reef in question. As a result, future decline in Ωa is likely to be steeper on the GBR than currently projected by the IPCC assessment report.

Numerical approximations of the mean absorption cross-section of a variety of randomly oriented microalgal shapes.

The size, shape, and absorption coefficient of a microalgal cell determines, to a first order approximation, the rate at which light is absorbed by the cell. The rate of absorption determines the maximum amount of energy available for photosynthesis, and can be used to calculate the attenuation of light through the water column, including the effect of packaging pigments within discrete particles. In this paper, numerical approximations are made of the mean absorption cross-section of randomly oriented cells, aA. The shapes investigated are spheroids, rectangular prisms with a square base, cylinders, cones and double cones with aspect ratios of 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, and 4. The results of the numerical simulations are fitted to a modified sigmoid curve, and take advantage of three analytical solutions. The results are presented in a non-dimensionalised format and are independent of size. A simple approximation using a rectangular hyperbolic curve is also given, and an approach for obtaining the upper and lower bounds of aA for more complex shapes is outlined.