From Australian Oceans Data Network
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2016 SoE Marine Chapter - State and Trends - Water turbidity, transparency and colour

Created 23/06/2025

Updated 23/06/2025

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The Marine chapter of the 2016 State of the Environment (SoE) report incorporates multiple expert templates developed from streams of marine data. This metadata record describes the Expert Assessment "The state and trends of physical, biogeochemical and biological processes - water turbidity, transparency and colour". The full Expert Assessment, including figures and tables (where provided), is attached to this record. Where available, the Data Stream(s) used to generate this Expert Assessment are accessible through the "On-line Resources" section of this record.

DESCRIPTION OF ECOLOGICAL PROCESS FOR EXPERT ASSESSMENT Australian marine waters are generally low in turbidity, colour and high in transparency. Much of our flora and fauna are highly adapted to these conditions and a deterioration in transparency puts these communities and populations at increased risk. In oceanic and outer continental shelf waters the major determinants of turbidity, transparency and colour is the biomass of phytoplankton (Yentsch 1960). Most of these waters are low in phytoplankton and we have some of the clearest waters on the planet. The light penetrates deeply allowing phytoplankton to grow down to > 100m. On the near shore regions of the continental shelf we have benthic communities dominated by aquatic plants (e.g. seagrasses and macrophytes) that are dependent upon light. DATA STREAM(S) USED IN EXPERT ASSESSMENT In-situ observations collected by the IMOS National Reference Stations and satellite detected ocean colour data.

2016 SOE ASSESSMENT SUMMARY [see attached Expert Assessment for full details] • 2016 • Assessment grade: Good-poor Assessment trend: Deteriorating Confidence grade: Limited evidence or limited consensus Confidence trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus Comparability: Grade and trend are comparable to the 2011 assessment • 2011 • Assessment grade: Very good Assessment trend: Deteriorating Confidence grade: Limited evidence or limited consensus Confidence trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus

CHANGES SINCE 2011 SOE ASSESSMENT This assessment uses observations made across a range of spatial and temporal scales that allows a robust assessment of current state and trends to be made. Times series data have been added to since the 2011 assessment.

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Additional Info

Field Value
Title 2016 SoE Marine Chapter - State and Trends - Water turbidity, transparency and colour
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/en/dataset/f4de994e-7a71-464e-9374-6597f3de3805
Contact Point
Australian Ocean Data Network
Peter.A.Thompson@csiro.au
Reference Period 07/09/2016
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
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  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Australian Oceans Data Network

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Australian Oceans Data Network "2016 SoE Marine Chapter - State and Trends - Water turbidity, transparency and colour". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://catalogue.aodn.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/2016-soe-marine-chapter-state-and-trends-water-turbidity-transparency-and-colour