Australian water quality trends over two decades show deterioration in the Great Barrier Reef region and recovery in the Murray-Darling Basin
Abstract Understanding river water quality trajectories and drivers is crucial for effective environmental management. Here we present a comprehensive nation-wide water quality trend assessment across Australia with 287 catchments from 2000 to 2019. About half of the catchments show significant tren...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Communications Earth & Environment |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02044-3 |
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| author | Danlu Guo Qian Zhang Camille Minaudo Rémi Dupas Clément Duvert Shuci Liu Kefeng Zhang Ulrike Bende-Michl Anna Lintern |
| author_facet | Danlu Guo Qian Zhang Camille Minaudo Rémi Dupas Clément Duvert Shuci Liu Kefeng Zhang Ulrike Bende-Michl Anna Lintern |
| author_sort | Danlu Guo |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Understanding river water quality trajectories and drivers is crucial for effective environmental management. Here we present a comprehensive nation-wide water quality trend assessment across Australia with 287 catchments from 2000 to 2019. About half of the catchments show significant trends in the flow-normalised concentration for each parameter analysed. Most of these significant trends are due to changes in concentration-flow relationships rather than long-term trends in flow. Two of Australia’s major river basins show opposing regional patterns in their significant trends. The North East Coast, which largely flows into the Great Barrier Reef lagoon, has increasing phosphorus and sediments. This potentially reflects lagged effects of increasing land clearing and fertilisation since 1960s, while land improvement in the region has not yet demonstrated improvement on water quality. The Murray-Darling Basin has decreasing salinity, phosphorus, and sediment, likely driven by effects of a region-scale salinity management interventions and a prolonged drought on catchment processes. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-7871b5325ca94b028715b0ea864f99be |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2662-4435 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Communications Earth & Environment |
| spelling | doaj-art-7871b5325ca94b028715b0ea864f99be2025-02-02T12:44:04ZengNature PortfolioCommunications Earth & Environment2662-44352025-01-016111310.1038/s43247-025-02044-3Australian water quality trends over two decades show deterioration in the Great Barrier Reef region and recovery in the Murray-Darling BasinDanlu Guo0Qian Zhang1Camille Minaudo2Rémi Dupas3Clément Duvert4Shuci Liu5Kefeng Zhang6Ulrike Bende-Michl7Anna Lintern8School of Engineering, College of Systems & Society, The Australian National UniversityUniversity of Maryland Center for Environmental ScienceDepartment of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences, University of BarcelonaINRAE, L’Institut Agro, UMR SASResearch Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin UniversityDepartment of Environment, Science and Innovation, Queensland GovernmentWater Research Centre, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UNSW SydneyScience and Innovation Group – Hydrology Research, Bureau of MeteorologyDepartment of Civil Engineering, Monash UniversityAbstract Understanding river water quality trajectories and drivers is crucial for effective environmental management. Here we present a comprehensive nation-wide water quality trend assessment across Australia with 287 catchments from 2000 to 2019. About half of the catchments show significant trends in the flow-normalised concentration for each parameter analysed. Most of these significant trends are due to changes in concentration-flow relationships rather than long-term trends in flow. Two of Australia’s major river basins show opposing regional patterns in their significant trends. The North East Coast, which largely flows into the Great Barrier Reef lagoon, has increasing phosphorus and sediments. This potentially reflects lagged effects of increasing land clearing and fertilisation since 1960s, while land improvement in the region has not yet demonstrated improvement on water quality. The Murray-Darling Basin has decreasing salinity, phosphorus, and sediment, likely driven by effects of a region-scale salinity management interventions and a prolonged drought on catchment processes.https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02044-3 |
| spellingShingle | Danlu Guo Qian Zhang Camille Minaudo Rémi Dupas Clément Duvert Shuci Liu Kefeng Zhang Ulrike Bende-Michl Anna Lintern Australian water quality trends over two decades show deterioration in the Great Barrier Reef region and recovery in the Murray-Darling Basin Communications Earth & Environment |
| title | Australian water quality trends over two decades show deterioration in the Great Barrier Reef region and recovery in the Murray-Darling Basin |
| title_full | Australian water quality trends over two decades show deterioration in the Great Barrier Reef region and recovery in the Murray-Darling Basin |
| title_fullStr | Australian water quality trends over two decades show deterioration in the Great Barrier Reef region and recovery in the Murray-Darling Basin |
| title_full_unstemmed | Australian water quality trends over two decades show deterioration in the Great Barrier Reef region and recovery in the Murray-Darling Basin |
| title_short | Australian water quality trends over two decades show deterioration in the Great Barrier Reef region and recovery in the Murray-Darling Basin |
| title_sort | australian water quality trends over two decades show deterioration in the great barrier reef region and recovery in the murray darling basin |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02044-3 |
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