Journal
MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN
Volume 188, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.114648
Keywords
Hypersaline; Hypereutrophic; Nutrients; Algal blooms; Lagoon -estuarine; Flushing; Water quality
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Estuaries in rainfall poor regions like Coorong, Australia, are facing ecological health decline due to reduced freshwater inflows and increased evapo-concentration. The persistently hyper-saline and hypereutrophic conditions in Coorong are affecting water quality and sediment quality, leading to negative impacts on the ecosystem. Increasing lagoonal flushing would help to reduce hypersalinisation and hypereutrophication and improve the health of the ecosystem.
Estuaries in rainfall poor regions are highly susceptible to climatic and hydrological changes. The Coorong, a Ramsar-listed estuarine-coastal lagoon at the end of the Murray-Darling Basin (Australia), has experienced declining ecological health over recent decades. Twenty years of environmental data were analysed to assess patterns and drivers of water quality changes. Large areas of the Coorong are now persistently hyper-saline (salinity >80 psu) and hypereutrophic (total nitrogen, TN > 4 mg L-1, total phosphorus, TP > 0.2 mg L-1, chlorophyll a > 50 mu g L-1) which coincided with reduced flushing due to diminished freshwater inflows and increasing evapo-concentration. Sediment quality also was related to flushing, with higher concentrations of organic carbon, TN, TP and sulfides as salinity increased. While total nutrient levels are very high, dissolved inorganic nutrients are generally low. Increased lagoonal flushing would be beneficial to reduce the hypersalinisation and hypereutrophication and improve ecosystem health.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available