Australia is home to 7% of the world’s mangroves, with the majority located in the tropical regions.
During the summer of 2015–16, one of the worst mangrove dieback events ever recorded devastated around 7400 hectares of mangrove forests along more than 1000 km of Gulf of Carpentaria coastline.
A better understanding of extent, patterns, condition, trend and the likely cause of dieback-affected mangroves is informing monitoring and management responses.
The dieback event has caused concern amongst local communities and industry bodies such as commercial and recreational fishing groups that rely on many ecosystem services provided by mangroves. The wider national and international community are also concerned about the dieback event due to its scale, diverse impacts and possible link to climate change.
Biodiversity is likely to have been significantly impacted by the dieback. For example, epibiont communities – the small plants and animals that live on mangrove trunks and aerial roots – have been shed, and leaf litter supplies, an important part of aquatic food chains, have almost ceased.
Of the affected mangroves, approximately 200 km are shoreline mangroves whose death would expose the coast to erosion and storm surge effects causing extensive geomorphic and ecological disturbance.
This project will:
Project activities
Anticipated outcomes
Anticipated outputs
Project update June 2019.
Field work is covering the entire dieback zone along southern Gulf shorelines from Weipa in the east to the Gove Peninsula in the west with more detailed ongoing monitoring near Karumba, Burketown, Borroloola and Numbulwar townships. The fieldwork discovered major dieback areas between Pormpuraaw to Numbulwar.
Australia is home to 7% of the world’s mangroves, mostly located in the tropics. During the summer of 2015-6, one of the worst mangrove dieback events ever recorded devastated around 7400 hectares of mangroves along more than 1000 km of Gulf of Carpentaria coastline. This project produced a field guide for Indigenous rangers to monitor mangrove condition in the Gulf.
The project is led by Professor Norm Duke from James Cook University (JCU). Professor Duke will be assisted by additional researchers from JCU and Indigenous ranger groups in the region.
For more information, visit the Mangrove Research Hub and Australian Mangrove and Saltmarsh Network websites.
Contact
Norm Duke, James Cook University
[email protected]
0439 191 952
This project is also being supported by the Tropical Water Quality Hub, the Marine Biodiversity Hub and the Earth Systems and Climate Change Hub of the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program.