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Project details
| Title: | Primary producer response to dredging related pressures |
| Id: | 2435 |
| Acronym: | WAMSI Dredging Science Node Theme 5 |
| Investigator(s): | Mat Vanderklift
CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere - Floreat [details] |
| Description: | This project meets the needs of the State Government and industry to improve their understanding of how key primary producers are affected by dredging-related pressures. There is almost no knowledge of how primary producers in the NW of Australia will respond to the environmental changes produced by dredging. Consequently, it is difficult to predict and then manage the impacts of dredging on these critical habitats with an acceptable level of certainty. This project will improve our understanding of how seagrasses are affected by dredging activities, and will apply that understanding to better prediction of impacts and management of dredging. A combination of laboratory and field experiments and field surveys will determine the levels of dredging-related pressures (or ‘thresholds’) that produce the earliest observable effects, sub-lethal effects and lethal effects on two species of seagrasses considered most ecologically important in the NW. The research will also determine the capacity of those seagrasses to recover from dredging-related stress. The research will focus on two of the most significant stresses produced by dredging: the reduction in light availability to plants; and the smothering of seagrass and algae as suspended sediments settle. The responses of seagrasses to dredging-related pressures will be characterised in order to identify plant or meadow features that can indicate the duration and the intensity of dredging-related stress that seagrasses have suffered. These indicators can be applied in monitoring programmes to identify stress and trigger management responses. The research will enhance the capacity of government and industry to predict the impacts on dredging on key benthic primary producer ecosystems and, in so doing, improve the certainty and timeliness of key approvals and regulatory processes. It will also improve the capacity to manage the impacts of dredging through improved design of monitoring and management frameworks. |
| Years: | 2013 to 2016 |
There are no surveys directly linked to this project.