The fifth round of Tropical Water Quality (TWQ) Hub research projects builds on successful world-class research on factors affecting water quality in Australia’s northern marine ecosystems, including the Great Barrier Reef. Research Plan Version 5, focuses on cross-integrating and scaling up research from the previous four research plans. This includes applying the Crown of Thorns Starfish Integrated Pest Management Strategy and Decision Support Tools (DSTs) to an expanded fleet of control vessels, deeper understanding and communications of the spatial variability of coral bleaching, using Big Data to build a scientifically robust program to monitor the aesthetic value on the Great Barrier Reef (underpinning the $6 billion-per-year tourism industry it supports) and much more. A full list of the projects is available on the NESP TWQ website. Stay tuned to The Chirp for more news on TWQ Projects throughout 2019.
