A detailed study of water quality on the Great Barrier Reef has found that seaweed increased and coral diversity decreased as the water was affected by high turbidity and levels of nutrients.
Conducted by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), the study was one of the largest of its type undertaken in the area.
Principal Investigator, Dr Glenn De’ath said seaweed cover showed the strongest response to poor water quality, increasing five-fold with declining water clarity. The diversity of corals was also affected, decreasing in poor water quality.
Measures impact of water quality
Coral reef ecologist at AIMS, Katharina Fabricius said research on the impacts of pollution on the Great Barrier Reef had previously been conducted on local scales.
“For this study, we collected ecological data from 150 reefs and at over 2,000 water quality stations across the entire Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, making it a much broader study,” Dr Fabricius said.
She said The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, extending 2,000 kilometres along the North East Australian coast, covered 345,000 square kilometres and contributed billions of dollars per year to the Australian economy.
The findings from this study have already been used by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority to develop water quality guidelines.
Dr De’ath said water on 22 per cent of reefs – about 647 reefs – did not meet water quality guidelines.
“The study predicted that if water quality was improved in these areas, seaweed would be reduced by 39 per cent, and the number of coral species would increase by 13 per cent,” Dr De’ath said.
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