2016 SoE Marine Chapter - State and Trends - Water column, inner shelf (0 - 25 m)

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 habitats and communities - water column, inner shelf (0 - 25 m)". 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 HABITAT/COMMUNITY FOR EXPERT ASSESSMENTBased on biomass the major communities found in the water column are phytoplankton>bacteria>zooplankton>fish (Marchant 2002). The water column is the habitat and the major determinants of quality for most pelagic organisms can be considered to be temperature (T), salinity (S), light, nutrients, dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, and food availability. The inner shelf waters around Australia are generally warm, mostly saline, well illuminated, low in nutrients, and phytoplankton, zooplankton and fish abundance. The inner shelf is also the pelagic marine habitat most exposed to human induced pressures and has local habitats that range from heavily disturbed to pristine. The capability of this habitat to support the existing flora and fauna can be considered to be under threat (e.g. Game et al. 2009) from: inputs from the terrestrial environment (e.g. sediments in runoff or due to increased erosion, nutrients, wastes), harvesting of biota, invasive species, infrastructure development (e.g. impoundments, harbours, hardening), mariculture, mining, oil and gas extraction, climate change (warming, falling DO, decreasing pH). There are many areas of local habitat degradation, with the most impacted areas tending to be embayments and estuaries with significant population pressures and limited exchange (e.g. Alyazichi et al., 2015; Mckinley et al., 2011). In spite of improvements in the management of these types of pressures the magnitude of the growth in mineral exports, agriculture exports and population growth would suggest that development impacts will have risen. At the same time across many jurisdictions improvements in sewage treatment and disposal mean that potentially dangerous pathogens are increasingly rare. For example in 2015 96% of NSW open beaches with high rates of recreational use were rated good or very good (NSW EPA, 2015). At a larger geographic scale our shelf waters are experiencing increasing impacts from global pressures such as warming. Shelf waters from Port Hedland to Cape Howe have risen ~ 1°C from 1993 to 2013 (Foster et al., 2014), and portions of the SW region were 3°C warmer during February 2011 than normal (Pearce and Feng 2013). There is evidence that dissolved oxygen has declined (Thompson et al. 2009) and will continue to decline due to warming (Talley et al., 2016). This is likely to lead to more losses of marine fauna due to low oxygen; such as the unprecedented event during 2015 in Cockburn Sound (Pattiaratchi 2016). Recent blooms of toxic phytoplankton in regions where they never bloomed before (Campbell et al., 2013) and the SE shellfish that have suffered badly from disease outbreaks (Hooper et al., 2007; Lewis et al., 2012). There is evidence of widespread responses to climate related pressures across the major types of biota, phytoplankton, zooplankton and fish (e.g. Johnson et al. 2011, Thompson et al. 2016) as well as our coral reefs under increased stress from rising temperatures and declining pH (Mongin et al., 2016).DATA STREAM(S) USED IN EXPERT ASSESSMENTData are computed from the level 3 (L3) daily global products using one merging method following Maritorena and Siegel, (2005). Details can be found at http://www.globcolour.info/products_description.html Phytoplankton and zooplankton data are from Australia’s National Reference Stations operated by the Integrated Marine Observing System.----------------------------------------2016 SOE ASSESSMENT SUMMARY [see attached Expert Assessment for full details]• 2016 •Assessment grade: GoodAssessment trend: UnclearConfidence grade: Limited evidence or limited consensusConfidence trend: Limited evidence or limited consensusComparability: Grade and trend are somewhat comparable to the 2011 assessment• 2011 •Assessment grade: GoodAssessment trend: DeterioratingConfidence grade: Limited evidence or limited consensusConfidence trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus----------------------------------------CHANGES SINCE 2011 SOE ASSESSMENTWhere possible this assessment includes a statistical analysis of trends in consistent measures of habitat and community around the country.

2016年《环境状况报告》（State of the Environment, SoE）的海洋章节纳入了多份基于海洋数据流构建的专家模板。本元数据记录对应专家评估报告（Expert Assessment）《生境与群落状况及趋势——水柱、内陆架（0-25米）》。完整的专家评估报告（含已提供的附图与附表）已附于本记录中。用于生成本专家评估的数据流（Data Stream，如有）可通过本记录的“在线资源”板块获取。
----------------------------------------专家评估用栖息地/群落描述
基于生物量，水柱中主要的群落按占比排序为浮游植物>细菌>浮游动物>鱼类（Marchant 2002）。水柱是多数远洋生物的栖息生境，其质量的主要决定因素包括温度（Temperature, T）、盐度（Salinity, S）、光照、营养盐、溶解氧（Dissolved Oxygen, DO）、pH值以及食物可获得性。澳大利亚周边的内陆架水域整体温暖、盐度偏高、光照充足，但营养盐与浮游植物、浮游动物及鱼类丰度较低。内陆架也是受人类活动压力影响最显著的远洋海洋生境，其局部栖息地从严重受干扰到原始状态均有分布。该生境支撑现有动植物群落的能力正面临威胁（如Game et al. 2009），威胁来源包括：陆地环境输入物（如径流泥沙、侵蚀加剧带来的沉积物、营养盐、废弃物）、生物资源捕捞、入侵物种、基础设施建设（如蓄水工程、港口、岸线硬化）、海水养殖、采矿、油气开采、气候变化（变暖、溶解氧下降、pH值降低）。存在多处局部生境退化区域，受影响最严重的区域多为人口压力大、水体交换有限的海湾与河口（如Alyazichi et al., 2015; Mckinley et al., 2011）。尽管针对这类压力的管理措施有所改善，但矿产出口、农业出口与人口增长的规模扩张表明，开发活动的影响仍在加剧。与此同时，诸多司法管辖区内的污水处理与处置技术升级，使得潜在致病病原体愈发少见。例如2015年，新南威尔士州（New South Wales, NSW）96%的高使用率开放式海滩被评为良好或优秀（新南威尔士州环境保护局, Environment Protection Authority, EPA, 2015）。在更大的地理尺度上，澳大利亚陆架水域正面临愈发严峻的全球尺度压力影响，比如变暖。1993年至2013年间，黑德兰港至豪角的陆架水域水温上升约1℃（Foster et al., 2014），而2011年2月西南部分海域水温较常年偏高3℃（Pearce and Feng 2013）。有证据表明溶解氧含量已出现下降（Thompson et al. 2009），且会因气候变暖持续降低（Talley et al., 2016）。这可能会导致更多海洋动物因低氧环境死亡，例如2015年科伯恩湾发生的前所未有的缺氧事件（Pattiaratchi 2016）。近期在此前从未出现过有毒浮游植物水华的海域，该现象均有发生（Campbell et al., 2013）；东南部贝类也因疾病暴发遭受严重损失（Hooper et al., 2007; Lewis et al., 2012）。有证据显示，诸多主要生物类群——浮游植物、浮游动物与鱼类——均出现了针对气候相关压力的广泛响应（如Johnson et al. 2011, Thompson et al. 2016），珊瑚礁也因水温上升与pH值降低面临愈发严重的胁迫（Mongin et al., 2016）。
----------------------------------------专家评估所用数据流
本评估所用数据基于Maritorena与Siegel（2005）提出的融合方法，从全球3级（Level 3, L3）每日产品中计算得到。详细信息可访问http://www.globcolour.info/products_description.html。浮游植物与浮游动物数据来自由综合海洋观测系统（Integrated Marine Observing System）运营的澳大利亚国家基准监测站。
----------------------------------------2016年SoE评估摘要【完整细节详见附件专家评估报告】
• 2016年
评估等级：良好
评估趋势：不明
置信等级：证据有限或共识不足
置信趋势：证据有限或共识不足
可比性：本次评估的等级与趋势与2011年评估具有一定可比性
• 2011年
评估等级：良好
评估趋势：恶化
置信等级：证据有限或共识不足
置信趋势：证据有限或共识不足
----------------------------------------2011年SoE评估以来的变化
本评估尽可能纳入了针对全国范围内生境与群落一致性指标的趋势统计分析。