Determining the ecological health of estuaries in North-Western Tasmania: Duck Bay

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 Duck Bay.

本研究以塔斯马尼亚西北海岸的四座河口（达克河、蒙塔古河、迪登特溪河及布莱克河）为研究对象，采用了河口监测中常用的一系列水柱与沉积物（底栖生物，benthos）相关变量。所涵盖的监测指标包括：水柱维度的盐度、溶解氧、浊度、营养盐及叶绿素a（chlorophyll a）含量；沉积物维度的氧化还原电位、有机碳含量、叶绿素a（chlorophyll a）含量以及底栖大型无脊椎动物群落结构。本研究除对比参照河口与受干扰河口外，还结合淡水输入的季节变化规律按季节开展组间比较，并针对河口内部的不同区域（上游与下游河段）进行分析——该实验设计此前已在Hirst等（2005）的研究中得到应用。该实验设计使得我们能够检验：人类活动干扰的检出效果（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地点，还是与上述因素无关。本数据集所收录的数据均采集自达克湾（Duck Bay）。