Great Barrier Reef Marine Monitoring Program for Inshore Water Quality - Salinity and Temperature Time-series Data

Brief description

This metadata record describes salinity and temperature time-series data collected through in situ monitoring by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Monitoring Program for Inshore Water Quality (MMP WQ). A full description of the MMP WQ and its associated datasets can be found in the parent metadata record linked above.


Continuous in situ salinity and temperature were measured using Sea-Bird Electronics SBE 37-SM conductivity and temperature sensors. The MMP WQ currently has instruments deployed at 9 sites summarised by Natural Resource Management (NRM) region below. The date ranges of instrument deployments are also shown; one site location was changed in 2021 but data are still available for download.


Wet Tropics NRM:



Russell-Mulgrave focus region: High Island West (2015-present) and Russell-Mulgrave River mooring (2015-present)

Tully focus region: Dunk Island North (2015-present) and Tully River mooring (2015-present)



Burdekin NRM: Burdekin River mooring (2015-present)


Mackay Whitsunday NRM: Pine Island (2015-present), Repulse Island dive mooring (2015-2021), and O'Connell River mooring (2021-present)


Fitzroy NRM (monitored 2005-2014 under MMP WQ, 2020-present under Fitzroy Basin program): Humpy Island (2021-present) and Fitzroy River mouth (2021-present).


Instruments are deployed for approximately 4 months at a time at 2 m below the water's surface. They collect one sample every 10 minutes. Calibrations are performed at either the NATA-accredited CSIRO Oceanographic Calibration Facility in Australia, or the Sea-Bird Electronics facility in the USA within 12 months of deployment. After retrieval, the instruments are cleaned and the data are downloaded and converted from raw instrumental hexadecimal records into measurement units using Sea-Bird Electronics proprietary software according to the standard procedures of the manufacturer. Deployment information and all raw and converted instrumental records are stored in an Oracle-based data management system developed by AIMS. Detailed procedures for data handling can be found the MMP WQ's QA/QC Reports (see link below in Related Information).

Lineage

Maintenance and Update Frequency: asNeeded

Statement: A detailed description of analytical procedures and quality assurance/quality control information for the MMP WQ can be found in the program's annual QA/QC report (see link below in Related Information).

Notes

Credit
Data were collected under the Great Barrier Reef Marine Monitoring Program for Inshore Water Quality. This program is a partnership between the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, the Australian Government, the Australian Institute of Marine Science, James Cook University, and the Cape York Water Partnership.