Ecologically relevant targets for pollutant discharge from the drainage basins of the Fitzroy Region, Great Barrier Reef

Abstract

[Extract] Ecologically relevant targets (ERTs) attempt to define the pollutant load reductions that would be required to meet the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) Water Quality Guidelines, which are set at a standard considered to be suitable to maintain ecosystem health. Thus ERTs are required to be met to achieve the overall long-term Reef Plan goal “To ensure that by 2020 the quality of water entering the reef from broadscale land use has no detrimental effect on the reef’s health and resilience”....The methods for deriving the ERTs vary between the pollutants. These are summarised....and described in detail in the body of this report.