Contents

• Summary
• Introduction
  • The scientific consensus on water quality and the Great Barrier Reef
  • The waters of the Great Barrier Reef
  • Factors that affect water quality
  • Rivers and water flows
  • Floods
• Water quality issues
  • Overview
  • Nutrients
  • Transport of nutrients in rivers
  • Nutrient re-suspension
  • The fate of nutrients in the Great Barrier Reef
  • Sediment and turbidity
  • Pesticides
  • Heavy metals
  • Acid sulphate soil run-off
  • Litter
• Pressures
  • Changing land use
  • Cattle grazing
  • Intensive agriculture
  • Coastal aquaculture
  • Wetland loss
  • Pollution impacts
  • Nutrients
  • Sediments, turbidity and marine snow
  • Effects on corals
  • Effects on sea grass
  • Acid sulphate soils
  • The impacts of changing land use of river flows
  • Effects of sewage effluent
  • Industrial discharges
  • Other development impacts
• Management Issues & Responses
  • Jurisdictional issues
  • Management responses
  • The Reef Water Quality Protection Plan
• Bibliography