WAMSI 2 - Dredging Node - Project 4.6 - Defining Thresholds and Indicators of Coral Response to Dredging Related Pressures - SEA SIM LAB EXPERIMENTS, Western Australia

Overall objectives of WAMSI DREDGING SCIENCE NODE Project 4.6 were to better understand the effects of dredging pressures on corals by better understanding cause:effect pathways, and identified, determining pressure:response relationships.This report describes a series of 5 experiments conducted at the National Sea Simulator (Sea Sim) based at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS, Townsville, Queensland) using 8 different coral species. Experiments followed a logical sequence with treatment levels usually based on previous experimental results and were separated into studies associated with suspended sediments and light attenuation (experiments 1, 2, and 3), sediment deposition (experiment 4), and the effects of bleaching (from thermal stress) on sediment clearance capability of corals (Experiment 5).