NESP Marine and Coastal Hub (2025). Detecting long-term trends in water quality at key Great Barrier Reef basins. Project 5.11 Information sheet. Reef and Rainforest Research Centre, Cairns, Queensland.
Overview
To address these threats, the Australian and Queensland governments introduced the Reef 2050 Water Quality Improvement Plan. Since 2014, there has been considerable government investment in Great Barrier Reef catchment area (GBRCA) water quality programs, including on-ground works and regulation.
Since 2014, there has been considerable government investment in Great Barrier Reef catchment area (GBRCA) water quality programs, including on-ground works and regulation. Despite this investment, there has so far been no comprehensive analysis of long-term trends in empirical water quality monitoring data to test and quantify any detectable changes. This project will draw on newly compiled historical water quality records to examine long-term trends of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) and suspended sediment concentrations across key river basins of the GBRCA for the first time. To complement this analysis, the project will also compile and assess fertiliser application data across river basins over the same timeframe.
