Are two seagrass types extinct in Gladstone Harbour? Uni is investigating
Published on 18 February, 2013
Two species of seagrasses appear to have become locally extinct in Gladstone Harbour and CQUniversity is keen to attract enough funding to expand its investigation of this loss of important habitat.
Gladstone-based researcher Professor Marnie Campbell says fish, turtles, crustaceans, dugongs, coastal dolphins and migratory shorebirds rely on seagrasses for food, shelter, and nursery habitat.
Seagrass monitoring near Gladstone
"Recent research in Gladstone Harbour has found that two locally rare seagrass species, Halophila spinulosa and Cymodocea rotundata, may no longer be present at previously recorded locations, raising concerns that these two species have become locally extinct," she says.
"Gladstone Harbour is undergoing rapid industrial development in the midst of significant World Heritage values, and UNESCO has raised concerns about the current port expansion. The area is also under pressure from flood events in 2011 and now in 2013.
"Seagrasses in Gladstone Harbour are matters of National Environmental Significance under the EPBC Act, with port expansion (dredging and land reclamation) and flood events causing significant environmental stress."
Professor Campbell says pre-existing survey data has used traditional survey methods that do not explicitly account for spatial rarity and hence the data collected by others and the survey methods used, are inadequate to answer these extinction questions and to track rare species.
"Our proposed study will determine the presence/absence and distribution (if present) of these two species, while creating a new model to keep track of rare species in coastal ecosystems" she says.
"If the species are not located in 2013 surveys, the surveys will be repeated for two years, based on the potential longevity and viability of seagrass seeds within the seed bank, to determine if the species have become locally extinct."
If the seagrasses prove to be extinct, it could trigger new conditions on developments in the Gladstone Harbour region or other Australian coastal developments.
If the species are present at a low population viability, a restoration plan will be created and trialled under Professor Campell's Queensland Government Fellowship that is investigating restoring Queensland seagrasses.
"We are keen to develop a new method of determining rare seagrass species presence and population viability based on a combination of niche and risk modelling. This will then help us to protect these important species in our coastal ecosystems," Professor Campbell says.
