SDG14 Life Below Water

Since joining CQUniversity in 2013, marine scientist Dr Emma Jackson (a member of the Seagrass Restoration Network) has led multiple projects around Seagrass restoration. Dr Jackson’s research focuses on the science behind how seagrass habitats maintain their populations and what actions the public can take to help. Through the use of a state-of-the-art tidal mesocosm system (aquaria that mimic natural conditions) located at the CQUniversity Gladstone Marina campus, Dr Jackson and a team of environmental researchers are identifying best-practice approaches for enhancing and restoring depleted seagrass meadows in the Port of Gladstone. Research on the potential for habitat enhancement to create resilient seagrass meadows through the beneficial reuse of dredge material by Dr Jackson’s research team has been incorporated into the Gladstone Ports Corporation Sediment Management Plan.

• CQUniversity is currently undertaking a Research Higher Degree project aiming to quantify the drivers of variability in seagrass flowering for the species of Zostera muelleri and build a predictive model of the spatial-temporal initiation of flowering along the Australian east coast.  The results of this research will enable restoration managers to find locations and periods where seed collection trials could be implemented.
• CQUniversity recently led a public seagrass flower collection project in conjunction with the Gladstone Healthy Harbour Partnership. The initial events involved local Girl Guides and international English language student volunteers, while later events involved members of the Gidarjil Development Corporation Indigenous Sea Rangers.
• CMERC was recently awarded funding for their project Sea Flowers: growing community engagement for seagrass restoration.
• Community Seagrass Flower Harvest -  Passionate citizen scientists have joined researchers from CQUniversity Australia’s Coastal Marine Ecosystems Research Centre (CMERC) to collect seagrass flowers in Gladstone Harbour, for the final harvest of the season.
• With funding from the Australian Ethical Foundation, CMERC researchers assessing options for large scale seagrass restoration using drones “SEAD: Seagrass enhancement via Ariel Drones’, and in partnership with OzTech Drones.
• A CMERC researcher is leading a project funded by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation under their Reef Island Initiative to look at Restoring Seagrass Resilience in the Whitsunday Region.
• CMERC was awarded a project Sea Flowers: Growing community engagement for seagrass restoration.by the Queensland Chief Scientist’s Office, which is building capacity for seagrass restoration through Citizen Science collaborations.
• CMERC led two Seagrass Regeneration Missions in Sept. and Oct. 2021 at Pelican Banks on Curtis Island.  Over 2 hours, we covered over 20ha of meadow at low tide to collect over 10, 000 flowers.  These flowers will be held in aquaria for 1 month to collect seeds.

This research used reviews, hydrodynamic modelling and knowledge of local mangrove seagrass and oyster habitats to propose working with nature (WWN) options in detail (description, habitat creation, economic value, trials, and monitoring), that would enhance biodiversity, fish habitat and carbon capture during seawall construction. The Port of Gladstone is a large multicommodity Port and the 5^th largest coal port in the world and is within the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. This research led to the Gladstone Ports Corporation funding for PhD scholarship and investment in large scale trials.

Working with the Australian Seaweed Institute CMERC is undertaking a project to determine the potential for coastal/in-shore seaweed biofilters as an ecological solution to reduce nitrogen loads impacting on the reef and to utilise the harvested seaweed as a biofertilizer to further reduce nitrogen and synthetic fertiliser applications in upstream catchments. In doing so the project will quantify the environmental, social and economic opportunity for this solution to protect the reef at scale. The precursor to sea trials, which can be carried out in a controlled environment. The project was selected as one of 11 innovative projects at the Davos World Economic Forum.

A solution in the Sea: Seaweed to soak up Great Barrier Reef Nitrogen. A new project led by the Australian Seaweed Institute (ASI) in partnership with CQUniversity’s Coastal and Marine Ecosystems Research Centre (CMERC) will develop new technologies to enable seaweed biofilters to absorb nitrogen that can then be re-used as a bio-fertiliser on land.

The Rodd’s Harbour Fish Habitat Area (FHA-036) has three historic and unlawfully installed earthen causeways that obstruct aquatic bio passage and the fresh-marine continuum in this high-value coastal wetland system. The following proposal by CMERC focuses on evaluating improvements in the fish habitat of the planned removal of these causeways, focussing on changes in adjacent wetland habitat (saltmarsh, mangrove and seagrass meadows), water and sediment quality. A large erosion site located in the tidal area of the Kolan River in the Discovery Coast has been identified as a major contributor of fine sediments entering the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area and is experiencing further erosion due to the compromised nature of the eroded shoreline site. By undertaking engineered shoreline rehabilitation works in this area, the bank will be stabilised avoiding further shoreline erosion at the site and downstream and enabling natural revegetation to occur further binding sediment and preventing it from entering the marine environment. Plans to rehabilitate this region offer a unique research opportunity to use multiple lines of evidence approach to evaluate the success of this and other similar engineering projects.

Microplastics have been identified in all aquatic ecosystems, including mangrove and seagrass habitats, which are often called the kidneys of the Great Barrier Reef because they act as land-to-sea buffers by filtering out particulate matter and contaminants. As such, they could play a beneficial role in trapping microplastics and reducing the flux to offshore habitats like the Great Barrier Reef. This would be the first known study to investigate the role of mangroves and seagrass beds as a protective barrier to further limit the dispersal of microplastics to the GBR. However, these benefits likely incur a presently unknown cost to mangroves and seagrasses and the animals that depend on them.

Successful interventions already capture, identify and audit road-based litter including larger plastic debris using stormwater drain traps, e.g. ‘Drain Buddies’ in Queensland. In trials we have modified Drain Buddies to capture finer scale road-based microplastics; but we are missing knowledge on the ‘when’, ‘where’ and for ‘how long’ to target a reduction in road-associated pollution; and a system for initiating the intervention. Other plastic waste studies have used community-based nudge interventions to dramatically reduce waste, but typically at individual levels (e.g. using bins, not littering). We will use the same community nudge concept to reduce waste at the corporate level through liaison with councils and road industry sectors to encourage less wasteful behaviour via the easiest, most accessible option without adding extra burden to the process.

This project will be carried out at sites in Rockhampton and Yeppoon over a two year period.

CQUniversity researchers are undertaking an assessment of Yellow Chat (Capricorn subspecies) population and associated marine habitat on Curtis Island (2020 – 2024)

CMERC researchers were awarded funding for their project, ‘Choice Experiment of the Economic Benefits from Improved Fish Passage and Diversion Screening in Inland NSW Rivers’ by the Department of Regional NSW RFQ Choice Experiment of the Economic Benefits from Improved Fish Passage and Diversion Screening in Inland NSW Rivers

• CMERC researchers are examining Litter and Marine Debris Clean up and Prevention ‘All 'roads' flow to the sea: capturing road-based plastic pollution’.

CMERC was awarded funding for ‘Assessing water quality influence of large-scale channel stabilisation (C210022)'.

The Port Curtis Integrated Monitoring Program is the first collaborative monitoring program to be undertaken for the whole of Port Curtis. The Gladstone-based PCIMP program conducts ambient mid to far-field monitoring of water bodies for the whole of Port Curtis which extends from the northern end of the Narrows to Rodds Bay and includes the harbour and its tributaries. CQUniversity works with PCIMP as a collective of industries and stakeholder to analyse, interpret, and present quarterly water quality monitoring data achieved throughout Gladstone Harbour. Professor Owen Nevin (Associate Vice-Chancellor CQUniversity Gladstone Region, 2012-2020)  is PCIMP's current Independent Chair and spokesperson. Professor Nevin has extensive experience and knowledge in collaborative research associations in addition to his high level of scientific knowledge. CMERC staff Dr Emma Jackson (Director), Dr Andrew Irving and Dr Amie Anastasi are advisors on PCIMP technical sub-committee (TSC).

The PCIMP program has also benefited the community is a number of ways.

• The on-going monitoring and reporting program provides invaluable information to researchers and the community. In 2006 when the  'Global Peace' oil spill occurred, PCIMP was able to provide data and tracking.
• PCIMP data is used by the Gladstone Healthy Harbour Partnership to produce their annual Report Card.
• PCIMP data and TSC advice was utilised and considered by the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection in the creation of the new Capricorn Curtis Coast Water Quality Objectives.

The continuation of the PCIMP program ensures the trends in water and sediment quality in Port Curtis are assessed and monitored,  to inform the management of the Harbour to maintain healthy waters for recreational use, marine sustainability and minimal impact into the adjoining  World Heritage Area and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

Seagrass bioindicator - In 2019 seagrass was incorporated into annual PCIMP monitoring as an ecologically relevant bioindicator of ecosystem health to complement water and sediment sampling due to research completed by CMERC staff and research students.

• Fitzroy Partnership for River Health awarded CMERC researcher’s a project to undertake “Analysis of 10 years of Fitzroy Basin water monitoring data’.

• CMERC staff visited the North Keppel Island Environmental Centre to collect seagrass flowers with partners NKIEC, Fitzroy Basin Association and Woppaburra Peoples, and to view progress on the NKIEC/CMERC seagrass nursery facility.

Gladstone Healthy Harbour Partnership was established in 2012/13 to report on the health of the Gladstone Harbour. There are 25 collaborating organisations, including CQUniversity,  government at all levels, traditional owners, community groups, port, industry (including international companies such as Shell, Rio Tinto, NRG) and science groups. A key component of the partnerships is to report back to the public on the health of the harbour and provide information on current activities. John Rolfe of CQUniversity is the Chair of The Independent Science Panel.

• Healthy Harbour Report Card
  • The 2021 Gladstone Harbour Report Card contains the results calculated using 33 indicators derived from 108 different measures within the four components of harbour health: Environment, Economic, Social, and Cultural. Separate annual monitoring projects are run by CQUniversity, including Social, Cultural and Economic Indicators (Jeremy De Valck), Mud Crab Indicator (Nicole Flint), Fish Health Indicator (Nicole Flint).
  • Mud Crabs - In 2017 a  fish health indicator was added to the annual Gladstone Harbour Report Card due to research completed by Nicole Flint.

As outlined in the Procurement and Policy and Procedure, CQUniversity is committed to protecting the environment and doing business with ethical and sustainably responsible suppliers during all stages of the procurement process. Buyers must plan, identify and integrate the practice of sustainability into the procurement of goods and/or services. Preference should be given to environmentally preferable goods and services that have a lower impact on the environment over the life cycle of the good or service, when compared with competing goods or services serving the same purpose

Sustainability remains a key priority as we look to an increasingly complex future. Our Sustainability Annual Report provides an open account of our sustainability performance. It also demonstrates our support, commitment, and progress against the principles of the United Nations Global Development Goals.

Part of CQUniversity's Sustainability goals revolve around the efficient use of water and minimising any wastage as one of our most precious resources

Other examples of how we demonstrated our commitment to Sustainability

• The DFM Sustainability Team purchased 8 x 25,000 litre water tanks and pumps to collect and store water for future use.
• New buildings will be fitted with 5 star energy rating appliances.
• Smart water meters (Utilious water metering) capture daily water usage across the Rockhampton Campus. This data forms part of an investigation to further analyse and reduce our potable water consumption across the campus.
• Baseline water consumption monitoring by DFM continues to quantify our water use and further investigations towards reductions in water use are ongoing.

CQUniversity's Sustainability Framework outlines the short and long term goals to achieve our Sustainability Goals. These are broken into nine elements with the following elements relating to SDG 14: Life Below Water

• Research (Page 7)
• Waste (Page 8)
• Water (Page 11)
• Biodiversity (Page 14)

In 2019, the Fitzroy Basin Association commissioned a review of the previously written Fitzroy Water Quality Improvement Plan (WQIP:2015) reports ensuring the plan utilises the best available science and data. The update ensures the Fitzroy Region’s project management continues to maximise the public benefits of investment and maximise the reduction of both sediment and nutrient runoff to the Reef.

The WQIP:2015 shows how we can improve regional water quality to protect our waterways and ultimately the Great Barrier Reef. WQIP:2015 sets out the priorities for improving water quality, including: describing the coastal and marine ecosystems and species that are at risk from poor water quality; identifying catchment ‘hot spots’ of soil erosion and nutrient run-off that are the source of water quality problems; understanding how land management practices and habitat restoration can reduce the risk of water quality problems; and finding the most cost-effective ways to reduce water quality risks.

CQUniversity was a Delivery Partner/ Consultant in the following studies for the WQIP.

Status of catchment, coastal and marine ecosystems

• State of the coastal and marine environment review

Scoping and risk assessment of water quality issues

• Synthesis of water quality influences in ports of the Fitzroy region, Queensland

Regional Prioritisation

• Bioeconomic modelling and Neighbourhood Catchments prioritisation
• Synthesis of science for future prioritisation approaches in the Fitzroy Basin
• Extension and Impact

The Code of Conduct for Research in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park outlines CQUniversity has an ongoing commitment to improving practices and standards in all activities undertaken in the Marine Park to help protect the Great Barrier Reef. This document establishes the minimum requirements for the proper conduct of research within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. This Code of Conduct is also supported by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Operating Procedure.

The Contractor Occupational Health and Safety Management Procedure outlines the determinants all individuals must take to minimise environmental harm associated with all activities they undertake including the potential pollution actions may incur (Refer Clause 3.8). This outlines that all individuals must take reasonable steps to minimise environmental harm associated with all activities they undertake. To determine what measures should be taken, a person should consider:

• the nature of any potential pollution
• the sensitivity of the environment where the pollution may end up
• financial implications of the actions
• the current technology available
• the likelihood of success of the implemented actions.