A benthic light index of water quality in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia.

Mar Pollut Bull

Australian Institute of Marine Science, PMB3, Townsville MC, QLD 4810, Australia; AIMS@JCU, College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia.

Published: August 2021

AI Article Synopsis

  • Good water quality is crucial for marine ecosystems, particularly in the Great Barrier Reef, but existing metrics don't effectively correlate with ecological health.
  • A new water quality index is introduced that uses benthic irradiance (bPAR), which measures light availability at the seafloor and is vital for coral and seagrass health.
  • This new bPAR index shows significant spatial and temporal variability, aligning with water clarity changes, and serves as a strong ecological indicator to enhance current water quality assessments for the reef.

Article Abstract

Good water quality is essential to the health of marine ecosystems, yet current metrics used to track water quality in the Great Barrier Reef are not strongly tied to ecological outcomes. There is a need for a better water quality index (WQI). Benthic irradiance, the amount of light reaching the seafloor, is critical for coral and seagrass health and is strongly affected by water quality. It therefore represents a strong candidate for use as a water quality indicator. Here, we introduce a new index based on remote sensing benthic light (bPAR) from ocean color. Resulting bPAR index timeseries, based on the extent to which the observed bPAR fell short of the locally- and seasonally-specific optimum, showed strong spatial and temporal variability, which was consistent with the dynamics that govern changes in water clarity in the Great Barrier Reef. Our new index is ecologically relevant, responsive to changes in light availability and provides a robust metric that may complement current Great Barrier Reef water quality metrics.

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Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112539DOI Listing

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