Flood plume water quality and spatial distribution of water quality indicators in Elizabeth River estuary, Darwin Harbour
Drewry, J.; Fortune, J.; Majid, M.; Northern Territory. Department of Natural Resources, Environment, The Arts and Sport. Aquatic Health Unit
E-Publications; E-Books; PublicationNT; Report No 20/2010
2010
Elizabeth River
Cover title.; Made available via the Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT)
1. Summary -- 2. Background -- 2.1 Darwin Harbour and region -- 2.2 Elizabeth River estuary -- 2.3 Water quality objectives to protect water quality -- 2.4 Previous monitoring of water quality in Elizabeth River estuary -- 2.5 Flood plume monitoring -- 2.6 Objectives -- 3. Methods -- 3.1 Water quality indicators -- 3.2 Chlorophyll a mapping and fluorometry -- 3.3 Physical indicator mapping -- 3.4 Water quality profiles -- 3.5 Profile nutrients and other indicators -- 4. Rainfall and flood event results -- 4.1 Rainfall -- 4.2 Catchment hydrology -- 5. Water quality mapping results -- 5.1 Spatial distribution of physical indicators pre-plume -- 5.2 Spatial distribution of physical indicators during plume -- 5.3 Spatial distribution of physical indicators post plume -- 5.4 Comparison of physical indicators pre-plume, during and post-plume -- 6. Chlorophyll a mapping results -- 6.1 Elizabeth River estuary -- 6.2 Myrmidon Creek estuary -- 7. Water quality depth profile results -- 7.1 Summary of data during plume -- 7.2 Sites by depth during plume -- 7.3 Summary of data post plume -- 7.4 Sites by depth post plume -- 8. Water quality results for nutrients and other indicators -- 8.1 Site -- 8.2 Site and depth -- 9. Comparison with water quality objectives -- 10. Discussion -- 10.1 Flood plume influence in Elizabeth River estuary -- 10.2 Water quality in Myrmidon Creek estuary -- 10.3 Recommendations for further research -- 11. Conclusions -- 12. References -- 13. Acronyms and abbreviations -- 14. Glossary.
English
Water quality -- Northern Territory -- Elizabeth River; Water quality -- Measurement
Northern Territory Government
Palmerston
Report No 20/2010
54 pages : colour illustration ; 30 cm.
application/pdf
9781921519819
Attribution International 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)
Northern Territory Government
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/231316
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/668620
16 Figure 9 Elizabeth River gauge station (G8150018) mean monthly total flow (ML) 19902009. Source: Hydstra database, NRETAS. 4.2.3 Catchment pollutant concentrations Typically, urban land use in the Darwin region has a TSS export coefficient eight times greater than non-urban land use (Skinner et al. 2009). Urban land use in the Darwin region has a TN and TP export coefficient three and 10 times, respectively, greater than non-urban land use (Skinner et al. 2009). This section presents Elizabeth River gauge station (G8150018) wet season TSS, TN and TP concentrations for later comparison to data from the estuary plume. TSS, TN and TP concentrations from the Elizabeth River gauge station are presented in Figure 10 to Figure 12. The box plots show composite sample concentrations which are flowweighted event mean concentrations sampled during each sampling period, typically 2-3 weeks. Data were obtained from a composite sampling technique at the gauge station, with methods described in Skinner et al. (2009). Consequently, it is likely that concentrations shown are lower than may occur for discrete samples. The area draining the southern residential suburbs of Palmerston and new developments in the area, for example, drain to the estuary but are not included in the gauge station data. Note that the Elizabeth River gauge station has an area draining to the gauge of approximately 10,100 km2, while an estimate of the catchment surrounding the Elizabeth River estuary is approximately 22,900 km2.