Determining the ecological health of estuaries in North-Western Tasmania: Black River

This study considered a range of water-column and sediment (benthos) based variables commonly used to monitor estuaries,utilising estuaries on the North-West Coast of Tasmania (Duck, Montagu, Detention, and Black River). These included: salinity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, nutrient and chlorophyll a levels for the water-column; and sediment redox, organic carbon content, chlorophyll a and macroinvertebrate community structure amongst the benthos. In addition to comparing reference with impacted estuaries, comparisons were also made across seasons, commensurate with seasonal changes in freshwater river input, and between regions within estuaries (upper and lower reaches) - previously identified in Hirst et al. (2005). This design enabled us to examine whether the detection of impacts (i.e. differences between reference and impacted systems) was contingent on the time and location of sampling or independent of these factors. The data represented by this record was collected in the Black River.

本研究选取塔斯马尼亚州西北海岸的四座河口（达克河、蒙塔古河、迪滕申河与布莱克河）作为研究区域，采用了常用于河口监测的一系列水柱与沉积物（底栖生物，benthos）相关变量。这些变量涵盖：水柱层面的盐度、溶解氧、浊度、营养盐与叶绿素a浓度；沉积物层面的氧化还原电位、有机碳含量、叶绿素a以及底栖大型无脊椎动物群落结构。除了对比参照河口与受干扰河口之外，本研究还依据淡水径流的季节变化开展季节间对比，并在河口内部的不同区域（上游与下游河段，该分区此前已在Hirst et al.（2005）的研究中被明确界定）开展对比。该研究设计可用于检验：干扰检测（即参照系统与受干扰系统间的差异）是否取决于采样时间与采样点位，亦或是与上述因素无关。本记录所对应的数据集采集自布莱克河。