Currents and Water Properties in the North-central Great Barrier Reef during the South-east Trade Wind Season

1978 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 345 ◽  
Author(s):  
GR Cresswell ◽  
MA Greig
Keyword(s):  
Great Barrier Reef ◽  
Ocean Circulation ◽  
Trade Wind ◽  
Barrier Reef ◽  
North Central ◽  
Low Salinity ◽  
The North ◽  
Coral Sea ◽  
Flow Through ◽  
A Site

Current meter recordings were made for 18 days at a site near Low Islets in the Great Barrier Reef lagoon and at another site in the nearby Trinity Opening. Hydrological data were collected inside the Barrier Reef and in the adjacent Coral Sea at the start of the experiment. The current records were analysed to gauge the effects of tides, wind, and open ocean circulation features. The lagoon flow was northward with a slight modulation due to the tides. The flow was reduced for several days at a time when there was enhanced eastward flow through Trinity Opening and out to the Coral Sea. The relatively low salinity, cool water in the lagoon is believed to have come from farther south and to have been diluted en route by river runoff.

Review of Australian species of Plectranthias Bleeker and Selenanthias Tanaka (Teleostei: Serranidae: Anthiadinae), with descriptions of four new species

Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4918 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-116
Author(s):  
ANTHONY C. GILL ◽  
JOHN J. POGONOSKI ◽  
GLENN I. MOORE ◽  
JEFFREY W. JOHNSON
Keyword(s):  
Great Barrier Reef ◽  
Reef Coral ◽  
Barrier Reef ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Christmas Island ◽  
Lord Howe Island ◽  
Coral Sea ◽  
Tasman Sea ◽  
Arafura Sea

Australian species of the anthiadine genera Plectranthias and Selenanthias are reviewed. Twenty-two species of Plectranthias and two species of Selenanthias are recorded from Australian waters: Plectranthias sp. 1 from a seamount north of Middleton Reef and Norfolk Ridge, Tasman Sea; P. alleni Randall from off southwest Western Australia; P. azumanus (Jordan & Richardson) from off southwest Western Australia; P. bennetti Allen & Walsh from Holmes Reef, Coral Sea; P. cruentus Gill & Roberts from Lord Howe Island, and possibly off Stradbroke Island, Queensland; P. ferrugineus n. sp. from the North West Shelf and Arafura Sea; P. fourmanoiri Randall from Christmas Island and Holmes Reef, Coral Sea; P. grahami n. sp. from off central New South Wales, Tasman Sea; P. inermis Randall from Christmas Island; P. japonicus (Steindachner) from the Arafura Sea and North West Shelf; P. kamii Randall from the Coral Sea, Lord Howe Island and Christmas Island; P. lasti Randall & Hoese from the North West Shelf and off Marion Reef, Queensland; P. longimanus (Weber) from the Timor Sea, Great Barrier Reef, Coral Sea and southern Queensland; P. maculicauda (Regan) from southeastern Australia; P. mcgroutheri n. sp. from the North West Shelf; P. megalophthalmus Fourmanoir & Randall from northeast of the Whitsunday Islands, Queensland; P. melanesius Randall from southeastern Queensland and a seamount north of Middleton Reef; P. moretonensis n. sp. from off Stradbroke Island, Queensland; P. nanus Randall from the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Christmas Island, Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea; P. retrofasciatus Fourmanoir & Randall from the Great Barrier Reef; P. robertsi Randall & Hoese from off Queensland, Coral Sea; P. winniensis (Tyler) from the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea; Selenanthias analis Tanaka from the North West Shelf and Arafura Sea; and S. barroi (Fourmanoir) from west of Lihou Reef, Coral Sea. Five of the species represent new records for Australia: P. azumanus, P. kamii, P. megalophthalmus, P. melanesius and S. barroi. Previous records of P. megalophthalmus from the North West Shelf are based on misidentified specimens of P. lasti. Records of P. wheeleri from the North West Shelf are based on specimens here identified as P. mcgroutheri n. sp. A record of P. yamakawai Yoshino from Christmas Island is based on a misidentified specimen of P. kamii. Plectranthias retrofasciatus was previously recorded from the Great Barrier Reef as P. pallidus Randall & Hoese, here shown to be a junior synonym of P. retrofasciatus. Video-based records of P. kelloggi from the Great Barrier Reef appear to be based on P. retrofasciatus. Identification keys, diagnoses, character summaries, photographs and Australian distribution information are presented for all species. Full descriptions are provided for the new species and for those newly recorded from Australia. 

scholarly journals Changing use of Lizard Island over the past 4000 years and implications for understanding Indigenous offshore island use on the Great Barrier Reef

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 43-109
Author(s):  
Ariana B.J. Lambrides ◽  
Ian J. McNiven ◽  
Samantha J. Aird ◽  
Kelsey A. Lowe ◽  
Patrick Moss ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Great Barrier Reef ◽  
Barrier Reef ◽  
Cultural Interaction ◽  
Offshore Island ◽  
The Past ◽  
The North ◽  
Coral Sea ◽  
Lizard Island ◽  
Reef Islands ◽  
Torres Strait

Archaeological records documenting the timing and use of northern Great Barrier Reef offshore islands by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples throughout the Holocene are limited when compared to the central and southern extents of the region. Excavations on Lizard Island, located 33 km from Cape Flattery on the mainland, provide high resolution evidence for periodic, yet sustained offshore island use over the past 4000 years, with focused exploitation of diverse marine resources and manufacture of quartz artefacts. An increase in island use occurs from around 2250 years ago, at a time when a hiatus or reduction in offshore island occupation has been documented for other Great Barrier Reef islands, but concurrent with demographic expansion across Torres Strait to the north. Archaeological evidence from Lizard Island provides a previously undocumented occupation pattern associated with Great Barrier Reef late Holocene island use. We suggest this trajectory of Lizard Island occupation was underwritten by its place within the Coral Sea Cultural Interaction Sphere, which may highlight its significance both locally and regionally across this vast seascape.

Oceanic inflow from the Coral Sea into the Great Barrier Reef

2002 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 655-668 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Brinkman ◽  
E. Wolanski ◽  
E. Deleersnijder ◽  
F. McAllister ◽  
W. Skirving
Keyword(s):  
Great Barrier Reef ◽  
Barrier Reef ◽  
Coral Sea

Is the Great Barrier Reef dead? Satire, death and environmental communication

2021 ◽  
pp. 1329878X2110558
Author(s):  
Kerrie Foxwell-Norton ◽  
Claire Konkes
Keyword(s):  
Great Barrier Reef ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Environmental Communication ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Barrier Reef ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
The Us ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
A Site

An obituary for the Great Barrier Reef (the Reef) by travel and food writer Rowan Jacobsen (2016) commemorated its ‘lifetime accomplishments’ in Outside, the US outdoor recreational magazine. ‘News’ of the Reef's demise went viral and the economic and political furore that followed was immense. Tourism industries, especially reliant on international arrivals, were impacted as potential visitors accepted the Reef's passing as fact. Politicians scampered to reassure Australians and the globe that the Reef was indeed still alive and beautiful. In the Australian public sphere, climate science deniers, alongside those advocating for climate action, collided over the impacts of global warming to Reef health. Subsequent mass coral bleaching events in 2016, 2017 and 2020 sustained at the very least, the idea that the Reef was, or was soon to be, dead. Our paper follows the idea of a ‘dead Reef’ in the context of historical and recent debates about Reef protection. Using Google Trends, we identify Jacobsen's article as the source of increased Australian and global ideation of a ‘dead Reef’. As a site of local and global environmental communication – where human relations to nature are expressed and understood - the Reef holds extraordinary story telling power. At the current junction then, the way we communicate the Reef is critical to public understanding and political action on climate change. We conclude Jacobsen's article is an example of the problems of satirical communication, serving to amplify existing conflicts and undermine efforts to foster to climate action.

Water circulation around Britomart Reef, Great Barrier Reef, during July 1979

1980 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 415 ◽  
Author(s):  
E Wolanski ◽  
M Jones
Keyword(s):  
Great Barrier Reef ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Central Region ◽  
Reef Flat ◽  
Water Circulation ◽  
Barrier Reef ◽  
Trade Winds ◽  
Sea Breezes ◽  
Coral Sea ◽  
Sea Level Oscillations

Weather and currents at eight sites were measured and drogue trajectories obtained in July 1979 at Britomart Reef, a middle reef located at 18�16'S.,146� 38'E. in the central region of the Great Barrier Reef province. The longest current records (3 weeks) were obtained at two sites in passes between the Coral Sea and the Great Barrier Reef Lagoon where westerly currents modulated by tides were observed. Analysis of residuals also showed the importance of wind-driven secondary circulation. Non-tidal sea-level oscillations were very small. Shorter current records (1-10 days) at six sites in the lagoon and on the reef flat showed a predominant northerly flow, also modulated by tides and wind. A residual anticlockwise water circulation existed in the lagoon where flushing was controlled more by winds than by tides. The rise in sea level over the reef flat as a result of waves breaking was negligible. Temperature differences between air and water accounted for the cooling of the water column during the expedition. Constant south-east trade winds were experienced at the reef, while on land the wind was weaker. more variable, and often dominated by land-sea breezes.

The Ecology and Distribution of Intertidal Organisms on Certain Islands off the Queensland Coast

1956 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 317 ◽  
Author(s):  
R Endean ◽  
W Stephenson ◽  
R Kenny
Keyword(s):  
Species Composition ◽  
Great Barrier Reef ◽  
Gradual Transition ◽  
Barrier Reef ◽  
Marine Fauna ◽  
The North ◽  
Specific Composition ◽  
Continental Islands ◽  
Longitudinal Division ◽  
Zonation Patterns

The species composition and general ecology of intertidal organisms present at Heron Island, a coral cay in the Capricorn Group, are recorded in this paper. It was found that the general zonation picture on this Great Barrier Reef island differed markedly from that found previously at localities on the Queensland mainland (Endean, Kenny, and Stephenson 1956). In particular the mainland upper barnacle (Chthamalus) zone was not represented at Heron I., and the species forming the mainland lower barnacle zone (Tetraclita squamosa (Bruguiere) ) was replaced by a different species (Tetraclita vitiata Darwin). Also the characteristic algal zone of mainland localities was replaced by a lithothamnion-zoanthid-coral zone. In order to investigate the possibility of a gradual transition from the mainland type zonation to that found on the Great Barrier Reef, as exemplified by Heron I. zonation, the species composition and general ecology of intertidal organisms inhabiting a series of continental islands lying off the Queensland coast between lat. 16� and 22� S. were investigated. The fauna of these islands was found to be closely allied to that of the mainland. There was, however, an intrusion of corals and zoanthids on the more exposed of the islands visited which lie between lat. 20� and 22�S., and also on the more northerly of the islands visited. The biogeographical implications of these findings are discussed, and it is noted that the results of the present investigation support the contention of Whitley (1932) that a longitudinal division of the Queensland marine fauna into "Solanderian" and "Banksian" elements is warranted. Accounts are also given of the major environmental factors that might affect specific composition and zonation patterns at the localities investigated. Analyses of these have given much information on the general ecology and distribution of many Queensland intertidal species. Thls information is discussed. Of particular interest was the finding that the Peronian barnacle Tetraclita rosea (Krauss) has extended its range,to the north of the biogeographical boundary situated near lat. 25� S. by colonizing the more exposed of the continental islands.

scholarly journals On the surface circulation in the western Coral Sea and residence times in the Great Barrier Reef

2010 ◽  
Vol 115 (C6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Séverine Choukroun ◽  
Peter V. Ridd ◽  
Richard Brinkman ◽  
Lachlan I. W. McKinna
Keyword(s):  
Great Barrier Reef ◽  
Residence Times ◽  
Barrier Reef ◽  
Coral Sea ◽  
Surface Circulation

scholarly journals Comparative demography of commercially important species of coral grouper, Plectropomus leopardus and P. laevis , from Australia's great barrier reef and Coral Sea marine parks

2020 ◽  
Vol 97 (4) ◽  
pp. 1165-1176
Author(s):  
Samuel D. Payet ◽  
Jake R. Lowe ◽  
Bruce D. Mapstone ◽  
Morgan S. Pratchett ◽  
Tane H. Sinclair‐Taylor ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Great Barrier Reef ◽  
Barrier Reef ◽  
Important Species ◽  
Coral Sea ◽  
Comparative Demography ◽  
Commercially Important ◽  
Plectropomus Leopardus

scholarly journals Correction to: The Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea

2019 ◽  
pp. C1-C1
Author(s):  
Tom C. L. Bridge ◽  
Robin J. Beaman ◽  
Pim Bongaerts ◽  
Paul R. Muir ◽  
Merrick Ekins ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Great Barrier Reef ◽  
Barrier Reef ◽  
Coral Sea
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