Rapid coastal urbanisation, ongoing impacts from catchment degradation and the emerging threat of climate change have led to unprecedented concern about the health of Australian coastal ecosystems, and thus their ability to support coastal communities and lifestyles. This research theme will provide critical knowledge needed to support the sustainable use of our coastal and estuarine ecosystems through the application of innovative ecological, biogeochemical and modelling approaches and techniques to understanding ecosystem processes and dynamics. A particular emphasis of this theme will be the impact of urbanisation on coastal and estuarine ecosystem function.
Core skills: marine animal tracking, nutrients biogeochemistry, microbiology, environmental assessment, geomorphology, remote sensing and GIS, historical (and palaeo) assessments, sediment tracing, river restoration, stable isotopes applications to trophic ecology, hydrodynamics of tidal systems, mosquito ecology, biodiversity, mangrove ecosystems, population genetics, ecological modelling.
Current Projects
- Title:
- Influence of Marine Protected Areas on ecosystem resilience and ecological processes (ARC Linkage) 2008 - 2012
- Project Leaders:
- Professor Rod Connolly and Dr Kylie Pitt
- Description
- Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are being increasingly used to manage and enhance marine biodiversity in Australia and globally. Implementation of no-take zones can increase abundances of harvested species but the cascading effects on non-harvested species, and the effects on ecosystem processes and services, are mostly unknown. The most appealing aspect of improved biodiversity is a theoretical increase in resilience against large scale perturbations to the ecosystem, but this has not been tested. We will use the imminent rezoning of the Moreton Bay Marine Park (in southeast Queensland) to test predictions about the effects of protected areas on ecosystem processes and the services they provide, and on the resilience of coastal ecosystems.
- Partners:
- Queensland EPA (Dr Dave Rissik)
CSIRO Marine & Atmospheric Research (Dr Russ Babcock)
- Title:
- Effect of urban inputs and freshwater flow on estuarine ecosystem health and productivity (due for completion September 2010)
- Project Researchers:
- A/Prof Michele Burford (PL)
Ms Melissa Robinson (PhD student)
Mr Dominic Valdez (RA)
Mr Matthew Whittle (RA) - Description
- This project is assessing the effects of land-based development pressures on the assets and values of tropical estuarine ecosystems. The tropical rivers and estuaries of northern Australia are poorly understood despite the pressures to develop the water resources in this region. The research is focussed on 1. urban inputs of nutrient from sewage and diffuse sources on processes, habitats and biota in Darwin Harbour. The main future threats to the health of Darwin Harbour come from urban development. The project is also focussed on 2. a southern Gulf of Carpentaria estuary likely to be impacted from future broadscale agricultural land use change and water abstraction. The effect of changes to river flow, sediment and nutrient inputs to the food web of the estuary are also being assessed.
- Partners:
- CSIRO, Geoscience Australia, NRETAS, Charles Darwin University, AIMS, Raptis and Sons, CERF, FRDC, Smart State, DEWHA, Land and Water Australia
- Title:
- Phytoplankton Community Dynamics in a Sub Tropical Coastal Ecosystem (due for completion June 2011)
- Project Researchers:
- A/Prof Michele Burford (PL) and Ms Emily Saeck (PhD student)
- Description
-
This study seeks to describe the community dynamics of phytoplankton in western Moreton Bay in relation to nutrients and light. More specifically the study aims to answer the following questions:
- Are phytoplankton in a eutrophic to oligotrophic gradient in Moreton Bay nutrient limited?
- Do they respond to increases in nutrient concentrations?
- How is phytoplankton species composition affected by nutrient forms?
- Is the interaction between nutrients and light important?
- Are conditions ripe for increased dominance of harmful species in Moreton Bay?
- Partners:
- The University of Queensland, CSIRO, EPA, Healthy Waterways partnership, ARC