A group of students from Carleton College, an independent and highly selective American university, visited Gladstone this week to study the impact of natural and human-induced disturbances on costal environments.

The students attended a lecture given by Central Queensland University’s Dr Leonie Andersen (pictured) on the Port Curtis Integrated Monitoring Program (PCIMP), to learn about human-induced disturbances in the Gladstone region.

Dr Andersen is a senior research officer at CQU’s Centre for Environmental Management and in January was appointed to manage the implementation of the Port Curtis Integrated Monitoring Program for the next 18 months.

Dr Andersen said she talked to the students about the PCIMP and the themes that will be monitored as part of the project.

“It was an excellent opportunity for the students to learn about what is being done here in Gladstone and in particular I covered water quality, biomonitoring, seagrass, mangroves and sediment quality. We also discussed how each of these will be studied in light of the recent oil spill event,” said Dr Andersen.

The students were then taken on a tour of local industries.

The group arrived in Australia in early January. They began their trip in Tasmania where they undertook temperate estuarine and marine studies at the Australian Maritime College, Beauty Point. The trip will end with 10 days spent at Heron Island where they will study coral reef and tropical marine studies.

The students are in Australia to explore the ecological geological features of coastal environments in order to understand how natural and human-induced disturbances impact these systems.