1. Real-time water quality data
displays for NRM Management:
ACEF & Supersite facilities working together
Andy Steven,
ACEF Facility Director

2. Context
• Coastal periurban landscapes-
rapidly changing
• deteriorating water quality
• Loss of habitat & potentially
biodiversity
• Integrate across
• land to water flow;
• biogeochemistry to ecology
• Need high frequency data to
measure ephemeral events

3. ACEF and the Periurban Supersite
Australian Coastal Ecosystem Facility
• Provides enduring access to coastal data
of national importance
SEQ Peri-urban Supersite
• Measuring changes in carbon flux,
productivity, and biodiversity
Collaboration
• Assisting in data visualisation
• Linking data to ACEF portal as
well as integrated systems
• A feature of the SEQuITOR project (ANDs)

4. Measuring Water Quality & Biodiversity in an
urbanising estuary- the SEQ Periurban supersite
• Rapidly urbanizing
• Declining report card
grades Logan
• Turbid yet productive?
Albert

5. The Logan Albert is Productive and Biodiverse

6. Research & Management Questions
Ecosystem Science Questions:
• Quantify material flux and connectivity from Catchment to
Moreton Bay
• Understand effects of flow and biogeochemistry on primary and
secondary production and biodiversity
• Understand how urbanisation is affecting these ecosystem and
processes
Ecosystem Management Research Questions
• Can ecosystem services be maintained in an urbanising
environment?
• Measure tidal discharge and flux and determine net discharges
• Establish long-term ecological research in the Logan as a
representative peri-urban estuarine environment
• Test the efficacy of new techniques and technology

7. Increased anthropogenic flux with
landuse development
UL
STP LL
discharge Alb
Urban Aquaculture
Run-off Agriculture

8. New Methods for Measuring Water Quality
Meteorology
• Gill Windsonic
Video
• Sony HD
Flow& Discharge
• Sontek Argonaut SL500
Phys-Chem
• YSI 660
Nutrient Sensors
• Nitrate- Satlantic SUNA
• Phosphate Wetlabs Cycle
Carbon measurements
• Contros CO2 & CH4
• Wetlabs CDOM
Sediment
• Turbidometer
• Wetlabs Ecotriplet
• LISST Particle size
Power & telemetry

9. Fish Distribution and Biomass
Measuring Biomass
30 acoustic receivers
Acoustic tags
Species Number Target
tagged number
Bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas) 21 40
Mullet (Mugil cephalus) 19 60
Bream (Acanthopagrus australis) 15 40
Fork tailed catfish (Neoarius graeffei) 12 40
Mud crab (Scylla serrata) 16 40

10. Seeing Coastal Water Quality in real-time
http://acef.tern.org.au/portal/
terninstruments.csiro.au ftp://ftp.csiro.au/LoganRiver/

11. Who is Using Supersite Infrastructure & Data?
Research
• Griffith University - Carbon
trophodynamics
• Marine & Coastal Carbon
Biogeochemistry Cluster
• CSIRO Genomic and Tracing studies
• SEQUITOR- ANDs
Application
• GBR – eReefs Continuous WQ Pilot
assessment
• Logan City Council and Tweed Shire

12. Tidal movement drives biogeochemistry
5.8 140 8
-70
Turbidity
-60 5.6 Velocity
120
-50 Plot 3 7
5.4 Chlorophyll
-40
100
-30
Water Depth (m)
5.2 6
Velocity (cm s-1)
Turbidty (NTU)
-20
Chl ( mg L-1)
80
-10 5.0
0 60 5
10 4.8
20 40
4.6 4
30
40 4.4 20
50 3
60 4.2 0
70
4.0 2
00 02 04 06 08 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 00
19th July 2009

13. Real-time Nutrient Dynamics
EHMP Site 211 (upstream) EHMP Site 212 (downstream) In-situ measurments (SUNA) Depth (indicative)
70
60
50
Nitrate (µM)
40
30
20
10
0
13 Sep 2011 03 Oct 2011 23 Oct 2011 12 Nov 2011 02 Dec 2011 12 Oct 2011 14 Oct 2011

14. Carbon Dynamics

15. Following Floods in realtime

16. Low Dissolved Oxygen after flood
Fish kills observed

17. Low DO related to high Carbon Load

18. Bull Shark movement
Three sharks that remained in the river
throughout the year and were flushed out Juvenile sharks 80 cm – 110 cm TL
with the January 27 Floods. Two sharks that left the river in August 2012

19. Bull Shark habitat use
• Plot of proportion of time animals spent in each area of river
• Individuals occupy different areas in summer and winter
Summer 2012 – March/April Winter 2012 – July/August
average water temp 24° C average temperature 16° C

20. Key Findings to date
1. Tidal flows affect biogeochemistry and
ecology
2 Not all sediment “new”; resuspension
3 Rich organic mix of allochthonous and
autochthonous sources which vary between
Logan and Albert
4 Carbon assimilation along foodchain reflects
differences in WQ landuse
5 Floods introduce a large carbon load to the
estuary which can cause hypoxia

21. Further Information
Contact Details:
Andy Steven
andy.steven@csiro.au or 0422 002 116
Access Information:
Coastal Research Portal:
http://coastalresearch.csiro.au
Or
• terninstruments.csiro.au/maps.html