Marine Monitoring Program: Annual report for inshore water quality monitoring 2019-20

Abstract

[Extract] The water quality component of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Monitoring Program has monitored and reported on the annual and long-term condition of inshore water quality in the Great Barrier Reef for the last 15 years. The program design includes the collection of samples along transects in the Cape York, Wet Tropics, Burdekin and Mackay-Whitsunday regions year-round, with higher frequency sampling during the wet season to better characterise this period of episodic river discharge. Satellite imagery and modelling are linked with in situ monitoring data to estimate the exposure of inshore areas to end-of-catchment loads from rivers in the Great Barrier Reef catchment.