GBROOS looks to measure and monitor the impact of the Coral Sea on the Great Barrier Reef and in particular to link the processes occurring
at a range of scales from oceanic circulation down to individual parts of a reef. To achieve this the project has deployed a range of equipment and is collecting a range of data.
At the largest scale satellite remote sensing data provides daily snapshots of large scale circulation and the processes that drive these. The data collected includes Sea Surface Temperature (SST) and Ocean Colour from which measures of turbidity and chlorophyll can be obtained. At the next level is the GBR Mooring Array which is an array of nine moorings located down the Great Barrier Reef in pairs; one of the pair is in deep water on the continental slope (70-200m depth), the other is located in shallower water (30-70m) on the continental shelf. The pair acts to monitor water coming from the deep ocean up the continental slope and onto the reef matrix on the shelf. This allows upwelling and on-shore events to be tracked and monitored as well as the along shore currents.
Complimenting the mooring array is a set of underway sampling systems installed on commercial ferries and the AIMS Research Vessels. The equipment measures basic water parameters such as temperature, salinity, turbidity and chlorophyll as the vessels are moving, for the commercial ferries this forms a long term data set along the same transect or path and so forms an important historical record. For the research vessels the equipment allows for opportunistic sampling and sampling that can be compared to other research being undertaken at the same time.
Sensor Networks provide the finest level of detail, seven reefs are being 'wired-up' with real-time sensors to look at small scale (lagoonal) patterns of water and to look at the environment around individual corals. This allows the lining of events seen within the lagoons to those measured by the mooring array in deeper water to the synoptic remote sensing data.
More information about the project design and outcomes can be found at the IMOS
web site or by viewing the GBROOS Science and Implimentation Plan
.
