Water quality in the inshore Great Barrier Reef lagoon: Implications for long-term monitoring and management.

Coastal and inshore areas of the Great Barrier Reef lagoon receive substantial amounts of material from adjacent developed catchments, which can affect the ecological integrity of coral reefs and other inshore ecosystems. A 5-year water quality monitoring dataset provides a 'base range' of water quality conditions for the inshore GBR lagoon and illustrates the considerable temporal and spatial variability in this system. Typical at many sites were high turbidity levels and elevated chlorophyll a and phosphorus concentrations, especially close to river mouths.

137Cs and excess 210Pb deposition patterns in estuarine and marine sediment in the central region of the Great Barrier Reef Lagoon, north-eastern Australia.

This paper focuses on the distribution of 137Cs and 210Pb(xs) in 51 estuarine and marine sediment cores collected between the Upstart Bay and Rockingham Bay in the Great Barrier Reef Lagoon, north-eastern Australia. Historical records of 210Pb(xs) and 137Cs atmospheric deposition and present day terrestrial inventories in north-eastern Australia are presented. 210Pb(xs) and 137Cs fluxes measured on suspended sediments in the Burdekin River are considered to be a source of recent inputs of these nuclides to the nearshore region of this part of the Great Barrier Reef.