Managing agricultural & port derived pollution in the Great - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Managing agricultural & port derived pollution in the Great - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Managing agricultural & port derived pollution in the Great Barrier Reef success and failure R. Kelley Jon Brodie Chief Research Scientist Science leader, Catchment to Reef Research Group, TropWATER, James Cook University, Townsville,

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SLIDE 1

Managing agricultural & port derived pollution in the Great Barrier Reef – success and failure

catchment to reef

  • R. Kelley

Jon Brodie Chief Research Scientist Science leader, Catchment to Reef Research Group, TropWATER, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia. 7th GEOSS Asia-Pacific Symposium Asia-Pacific Biodiversity Observation Network Tokyo, Japan, 2014

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SLIDE 2

The Great Barrier Reef (GBR)

The “Reef” 350,000 km 2 3000 coral reefs Large seagrass meadows Dugongs, turtles, whales, fisheries 2000 km N to S GBR Catchment 400,000 km2 Sugarcane, beef grazing, urban, mining, grains, cotton, horticulture Ports Major – Cairns, Townsville, Abbot Point, Hay Point, Gladstone

Marine Park – 1975 World Heritage - 1981

Abbot Point

Hay Point

Gladstone Townsville Cairns

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SLIDE 3

GBR catchment scale

Cape York Wet Tropics Burdekin Mackay-Whitsunday Fitzroy Burnett-Mary

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SLIDE 4

Catchment landuses

Sugarcane Beef grazing Large scale coal mining Large and expanding ports Urban

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SLIDE 5

Sediment, nutrient and pesticide loads to the GBR

  • Sediment – 5 times increase since 1850 –

sourced mainly from erosion in grazing lands.

  • Total Nitrogen – 6 times increase since 1850

– Particulate N loads mainly from erosion in grazing lands, nitrate from fertiliser use in sugarcane, cotton, horticulture, grains.

  • Total Phosphorus – 9 times increase since

1850 – Particulate P loads also from grazing lands.

  • PSII herbicides (atrazine, diuron, tebuthiuron

and others) – 28 tonnes ( no natural load) – from sugarcane, grains cropping and weed control in grazing lands. Loads from Kroon et al 2012; source information from Waterhouse et al. 2012

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SLIDE 6

Pollutants discharged in large river flow events in wet season producing huge flood plumes

River discharge

Keppel Reefs

(Alison Jones)

Direct effects

MODIS Image

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SLIDE 7

Flood plumes

Plumes studied using MODIS, Landsat and other RS platforms plus sampling in the plume

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SLIDE 8

History of management

  • Marine Park Act – 1975
  • Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority –

established 1975

  • World Heritage listing 1981
  • Zoning complete by about 1990
  • More than $A 1 billion spent on management,

research, monitoring since 1975 However management over the first 20 years focussed largely on tourism and exclusion of fishing only in the small area of no-take zones. Traditional fisheries management prevailed as well by the Qld. Gov.

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SLIDE 9

Terrestrial runoff management

  • Scientific consensus – 2001 (after 20 years of

research and monitoring) (Williams et al. 2001)

  • Reef Plan 2003
  • Reef Rescue program funded 2008 - $A200 million
  • ver 5 years
  • Scientific Consensus Statement 2 – 2008 (Brodie et
  • al. 2008
  • Reef Plan 2009, 2013
  • Scientific Consensus Statement 3 – 2013 (Brodie et
  • al. 2013)
  • Reef Rescue 2 funded 2013 – 2018 - A$200

million

  • Queensland Gov. actions (> A$200 million)
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SLIDE 10

Some success under Reef Plan

Reef Rescue and Qld. Gov. investment 2009 – 2011 with farmer and grazier cooperation and financial support.

  • Nitrogen discharges down by 7% (2013 target

50%)(new 2018 target at about 36%)

  • Suspended Sediments down by 6% (~

360,000 tonnes) (2013 target 20%)( new 2018 target 20%)

  • Herbicides (PS II) down by 15% (2013 target

50%)(new 2018 target 60%)

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SLIDE 11

HOWEVER

Seagrass loss Dugong loss Coral reef degradation

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SLIDE 12

Coral cover decline (mid-shelf reefs mainly)

Coral cover in ~1960 = 40 – 55%

(Bruno and Selig 2007; Bellwood et al. 2004; Hughes et al. 2011)

Coral cover in 1986 = 28%

(Sweatman et al. 2011)

Coral cover in 2004 = 22%

(Sweatman et al. 2011)

Coral cover in 2012 = 14% (De’ath et

  • al. 2012) (note 11%

south of Cooktown)

Coral cover in 2020? – see De’ath et al. 2012 – 5%? Inner-shelf reefs also in decline (Thompson et al. 2013)

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SLIDE 13

Declining seagrass cover

McKenzie LJ, Collier C, Waycott M (2012) Reef Rescue Marine Monitoring Program: Nearshore Seagrass, Annual Report for 2010–2011. Fisheries Queensland, Cairns. www.seagrasswatch.org

  • Abundance decreased significantly since 2009 in all habitats
  • 2010/11 abundances lowest on monitoring record
  • 2011/12 abundances improving but remain low
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SLIDE 14

Status of the GBR

(from Brodie and Waterhouse 2012)

  • Coral cover from about 50% fifty years ago to less than 14%

currently (11% south of Cooktown) and predicted to decline further (Hughes et al. 2011; De’ath et al. 2012)

  • Dugong populations continue to decline
  • Seagrass in trouble especially associated with both chronic

stress and extreme events (Devlin et al. 2012; Petus et al. 2014).

  • Shark populations declining (Robins et al. 2006)
  • Crown of thorns starfish outbreaks started again in 2009 for the

4th ‘wave’ (Fabricius et al. in prep.)

  • Increasing inshore turbidity (Fabricius et al. 2013, 2014)
  • Increasing incidence of coral diseases
  • Increasing water temperatures
  • Declining calcification (e.g. Cooper et al. 2009)
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SLIDE 15

Status of GBRWHA and water quality

Scientific consensus statement on water quality in the Great Barrier Reef (Brodie et al 2013)

  • The overarching consensus is that key GBR ecosystems are showing declining trends in condition due

to continuing poor water quality, cumulative impacts of climate change and increasing intensity of extreme events.

  • The decline of marine water quality associated with terrestrial runoff from the adjacent catchment is a

major cause of the current poor state of many of the key marine ecosystems of the GBR.

  • The greatest water quality risks to the GBR are from nitrogen discharge, associated with crown of

thorns starfish outbreaks and their destructive effects on coral reefs, and fine sediment discharge which drives light reduction for seagrass ecosystems and inshore coral reefs. Pesticide inputs pose a risk to freshwater and some inshore and coastal habitats.

  • Recent extreme weather– heavy rainfall, floods and tropical cyclones – have had severe impacts on

marine water quality and GBR ecosystems. Climate change is predicted to increase the intensity of extreme weather events.

  • The main source of excess nutrients, fine sediments and pesticides from GBR catchments is from

diffuse source pollution from agriculture.

  • The use of improved land and agricultural management practices is proven to reduce the runoff of

suspended sediment, nutrients and pesticides at the paddock scale.

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SLIDE 16

Crown of thorns starfish again

  • Three waves of outbreaks 1962 – 1975; 1978 –

1990; 1993 – 2005; 2009 - ?

  • Now well understood to be linked to increased

nutrient discharge from the land (Brodie et al. 2005; Fabricius et al. 2010)

  • Removal of fish predators may also be linked.

No-fishing zones have less COTS? (Sweatman et al 2009)

  • Largest cause of coral mortality on the GBR

(Osborn et al. 2011; Hughes et al. 2011; De’ath et al. 2012)

  • Fourth wave of outbreaks now started off Cairns

north region (where all the other waves began) (Fabricius et al. in prep.) in 2009

  • We can now expect high coral mortality from

COTS in the central GBR over the next 10 years.

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SLIDE 17

Why has management failed

  • Early emphasis on tourism management – which was not

the main issue.

  • Fishing only comprehensively managed by 2005
  • Terrestrial runoff only started to be managed by 2009
  • Pesticide management still an issue due to ineffectiveness
  • f Australian Government pesticide regulator
  • Climate change not managed at all
  • Port development poorly managed and in contrast to other

issues management seems to be getting worse e.g. Gladstone Port, Abbot Point

  • Difficulties of getting scientific consensus, political

agreement , organizational structure and a funded management response.

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SLIDE 18

Port dredging and spoil dumping

  • Average annual suspended sediment discharge to GBR =

about 9 million tonnes

  • Anthropogenic contribution = 6 million tonnes (agriculture)
  • Amount reduced by Reef Rescue so far (2011) = about

360,000 tonnes

  • Dredge spoil amount to be dumped over next decade = ~

100 million tonnes – about 10 million tonnes per year

  • i.e. twice the total anthropogenic river discharge per year
  • Governance arrangements currently very poor (Grech et
  • al. 2013; Brodie 2014), could be improved but little

willingness to do so.

  • UNESCO concerns
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SLIDE 19

Gladstone

2005 2011

  • Large scale dredging for CSG terminals on Curtis Island.
  • Coincident fish, sharks, crabs, prawns disease outbreaks.
  • Compliances monitoring and environmental oversight not

adequate to determine causation.

  • Recent Australian Gov. review finds numerous flaws in

environmental management system, both in design and implementation, including poor cooperation between Queensland and Australian Government

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Abbot Point

Planned to dredge 3 million cubic metres and dump spoil in GBR Marine Park (5 million tonnes) spoil dumping

Dumping area to be determined

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What were the options

  • Long jetty (trestle) and no dredging
  • Medium length jetty and dredge < 500,000

m3

  • Dredge 3 million m3 and dump in GBRMP
  • Dredge 3 million m3 and dump behind bund

wall reclamation

  • Dredge 3 million m3 and dispose of spoil on

land

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SLIDE 22

What was chosen and permitted?

Dredge 3 million m3 and dump in GBRMP Was any adequate analysis of the options on the basis

  • f relative protection of the GBRWHA, feasibility and

cost done? – NO So in the end the cheapest, quickest and dirtiest (for the GBRWHA) option chosen Now many court cases (3 at present)!

  • 1. Against EPBC permit; 2. Against Sea Dumping

permit; 3. Against GBRMP Act permit

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SLIDE 23

Comparison of management

Agricultural sources 1. Reef Plan 2. Reef Rescue 3. “Good” governance 4. Reduction in loads Port sources 1. “Corrupt” process for EIS and compliance monitoring 2. Poor governance 3. Massive increase in dredging & loads 4. Lack of intent for “good” management

Some success

Failure

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SLIDE 24

Conclusions – prognosis for the GBR

  • Climate change has made extreme temperature conditions worse
  • Extreme rainfall (and cyclone activity) experienced on the east coast

has been influenced by a warming climate

  • It is highly likely that extreme weather events will become even more

severe in Australia So:

  • Prognosis poor in the face of further crown of thorns starfish, bleaching,

increased extreme weather, increasing port development

  • Hence the need to continue the things we can do – terrestrial runoff

management; enforcing the Marine Park zoning; better coastal management (ports) – improving resilience

  • UNESCO concerns – GBRWHA on “World Heritage in danger” list.

Brodie and Waterhouse 2012; De’ath et al. 2012; Grech et al. 2013

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SLIDE 25

Thank you

Thank you to AP-BON and Japanese Ministries of Environment and Science for supporting my participation.