University of Queensland researchers are providing scientific management services for the $5.2 million Brisbane River and Moreton Bay Wastewater Management Study - the most comprehensive study ever undertaken of the area.
The study will lead to the development of a water quality strategy by mid-1998 for use by the Queensland State Department of Environment to formulate wastewater licensing conditions.
The University's Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Paul Greenfield, is overseeing the study's scientific management role.
Professor Greenfield said the University's brief was to provide services for the overview, integration and co-ordination of the study's scientific activities.
'The University's role in the study is vital in linking science to management,' he said.
'The involvement of an institution of the calibre of the University of Queensland will ensure the strategy is based on sound scientific understanding of Moreton Bay and our waterways.
'This strategy will result in the maintenance of water quality in the region and provide a certainty allowing local authorities to develop plans and budgetary arrangements for sewage disposal and urban development.'
The area covered by the study includes Moreton Bay from Pumicestone Passage in the north to Coochiemudlo in the south and parts of the Pine, Caboolture and Brisbane rivers and associated creeks.
Study scientific co-ordinator Dr Eva Abal said in addition to the management role, University researchers from the Departments of Botany and Zoology were leading four of the study's 16 scientific projects or tasks and collaborating in one other.
As part of the University's scientific management role, Dr Abal, a member of the School of Marine Science, is co-ordinating the 16 tasks.
Botany Department senior lecturer Dr Bill Dennison and Zoology Department Associate Professor Jack Greenwood are leading specific tasks looking at the interaction of nutrients, marine plants, zooplankton and phytoplankton in the Bay.
The University is also co-ordinating a major task to design and implement a baseline monitoring program for the study in collaboration with the CSIRO, the Queensland State Department of Environment and Southern Cross University.
Dr Greenwood said the Bay had a very high biodiversity and was significant not only for having extensive tropical forms such as coral reefs and their associates but also in supporting very active and diverse fisheries.
'These fisheries are important both commercially and recreationally. An indicator of this being that even though Moreton Bay occupies just three percent of the Queensland coastline, it produces 10 percent of the total volume of commercial seafood (2000-3000 tonnes per annum) with at least a similar volume being caught by recreational fishers. Around 300,000 recreational fishers use the Bay annually.'
Dr Dennison said Moreton Bay was a unique and complex system, supporting healthy dugong and turtle populations as well as human activity including dredging, ports, recreation and transport.
Possible effects of sustained population growth combined with sediment run-off, sewage discharge, further dredging and agricultural run-off had created the impetus for the current study, he said.
The University's appointment as study scientific manager was made by the participants in the study: the Councils of Brisbane, Caboolture, Ipswich, Moreton, Pine Rivers, Redcliffe and Redlands in association with the Queensland State Department of Environment and the Queensland State Department of Primary Industries.
Local, State and Federal Governments are funding the study, the latter through the National Landcare Fund.
Professor Greenfield said the scientific management role offered many advantages for the University.
'We will have a much closer liaison with the whole community including consulting engineers and scientists and the University will be in a strong position to guide its own research related to the study,' Professor Greenfield said.
'The information generated has and will become available to the public which means our students will also be able to access this valuable data to assist them with their research projects. University of Queensland postgraduate students are working on most of the five tasks.
'This study is one of the most significant environmental studies ever carried out in Australia and is on a par with the Jervis Bay study in New South Wales and the Port Phillip Bay Environmental Study in Victoria. Being scientific manager for the study will give the University a high profile on the national scene.
'The University is pleased to be appointed scientific manager for this study because the information gathered, stored and analysed will ultimately be of value to all Queenslanders.'
For more information, contact Dr Abal (telephone 07 3403 3305 or 0419 719 140).
