Results of Two Dry-season Surveys of Keppel Bay and Casuarina Creek: Biogeochemical Properties of the Water Column and Underlying Sediments

The Fitzoy Estuary is one of several macrotidal estuaries in tropical northern Australia that face ecological change due to agricultural activities in their catchments. The biochemical functioning of such macrotidal estuaries is not well understood in Australia, and there is a pressing need to identify sediment, nutrient and agrochemical pathways, sinks and accumulation rates in these extremely dynamic environments. This is particularly the case in coastal northern Queensland because the impact of water quality changes in rivers resulting from vegetation clearing, changes in land-use and modern agricultural practices are the single greatest threat to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

This report includes:
1 Aims and Research questions
2 Study Area
3 Climate and Hydrology
4 Geology
5 Vegetation and land use
6 Methods
7 Sampling strategy
8 Water column observations and samples
9 Bottom sediment properties
10 Core and bottle incubations
11 Data analysis
12 Results
13 Discussion
14 The roll of Keppel Bay in accumulating and redirecting sediment and nutrients from the catchment
15 Sediment biogeochemistry
16 Links between primary production, biogeochemistry and sediment dynamics: A preliminary zonation for Keppel Bay
17 Conclusions

菲茨罗伊河口（Fitzoy Estuary）是澳大利亚北部热带区域的多个强潮河口（macrotidal estuary）之一，其集水区（catchment）内的农业活动正导致该河口面临生态变迁。目前，澳大利亚境内此类强潮河口的生物地球化学（biogeochemistry）功能尚未得到充分认知，且亟需明确这些极端动态环境中沉积物、营养盐与农用化学品的迁移路径、储存汇及积累速率。在昆士兰州北部沿海区域，这一需求尤为迫切：因植被清除、土地利用变更与现代农业活动引发的河流水质变化，是对大堡礁海洋公园（Great Barrier Reef Marine Park）构成的最主要威胁。

本报告包含以下内容：
1. 研究目标与科研问题
2. 研究区域
3. 气候与水文特征
4. 地质概况
5. 植被与土地利用现状
6. 研究方法
7. 采样策略
8. 水体观测与采样
9. 表层沉积物特性
10. 岩芯与瓶培实验
11. 数据分析
12. 研究结果
13. 讨论与分析
14. 凯珀尔湾（Keppel Bay）在汇集与转运流域来源沉积物及营养盐中的作用
15. 沉积物生物地球化学
16. 初级生产力（primary production）、生物地球化学与沉积物动力学（sediment dynamics）之间的关联：凯珀尔湾的初步分区方案
17. 结论