Standard Presentation Australian Marine Sciences Association Annual Meeting 2023

Comparison of BroadscaleĀ Assessment of Ecosystem Health to Smaller-scale Detailed Assessment. The Same Result? (#244)

Natan Noel 1 , Matthew Nelson 1 , Warwick Noble 1
  1. Environment Protection Authority, Adelaide, SA, Australia

Broadscale marine monitoring usually aims to provide high-level assessment of ecosystem health to support community values across the spatial scale of the study. Results can be compared to conceptual models of disturbance gradients to indicate condition based on monitoring results. More detailed, smaller-scale studies are needed to investigate any unexpected results. The EPA uses seagrass cover, epiphyte growth and water quality metrics in the broadscale monitoring and rated the condition of sites in Coffin Bay as poor to very poor in 2011, 2014 and 2019. The more detailed study in 2022 used; nutrients, chemical tracers, sediment characteristics, microbial and macroinvertebrate community assessments to create a separate disturbance gradient. The results from the detailed studies in 2022 support the broadscale monitoring results, indicating that the marine ecosystem in Coffin Bay has undergone widespread ecosystem change since European colonisation and that the system is still under stress from local pressures. The presentation will discuss results from both programs alongside cost analysis.