Coastal Ecology and Evironmental Science in Australia 2008

Perfect timing for our program: Science Magazine just published today a research article by Ben Halpern, a Carleton Bio alum, on the state of the world’s oceans. Great stuff. Using the links below may require using a computer that has access to a subscription of Science.

Abstract:

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/319/5865/948

Full story:

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/319/5865/948

UPDATE: Check out the comment below for coverage of this story by NPR

These stilted mangroves are the plant kingdom’s equivalent of jungle gyms.

Learning about mangroves along a sand flat.

A group photo following an afternoon of climbing the dune to learn about sand island and dune formation.

Here’s a photo from the top of an ancient dune looking south across 18 Mile Swamp.  These tall dunes formed tens to hundreds of thousands of years ago during times when glaciers covered North America and sea level was about 160 meters below present sea level.  They have been stabilized by vegetation for the past 12,000 years or so.

Stradbroke Island is beautiful.  Lots of isolated beaches and ancient sand dunes.

This week, the gang toured Brisbane en route to Stradbroke island. In Brisbane, we continued to take water quality readings to assess how major metropolitan areas like Brisbane impact the health of estuaries like Moreton Bay. Moreton Bay is a lot like Chesapeake Bay in terms of the nutrient pollution and sedimentation issues it faces. Here, the group heads across the ferry to Stradbroke Island where we embarked on several studies to understand the formation of sand islands, plant succession on sand dunes, and processes that structure mangrove forests.

The rain has not been entirely bad.  Here’s a nice double rainbow that formed after a heavy thunderstorm.  Perhaps it was an omen that the rain would end—we’re expected to have sunny weather for the next few days.

Sampling has been wild and wet this week. Three teams divided up this region, each of them studying one of the major estuaries of Gold Coast. It has rained just about every day, which is life in the tropics during summer.  The heavy rains have caused extensive flooding in Queensland, and it’s a good opportunity to see what gets flushed out of freshwater rivers into the estuaries during the rainy season.  Here, a group measures water properties in a gated canal estate.