NESP TWQ Project 5.4 - Deriving ecologically relevant targets to meet desired ecosystem condition for the Great Barrier Reef: A case study for seagrass meadows in the Burdekin region, 2019-2020 (JCU)

Updated: 2026-06-25

This project derived Ecologically Relevant Targets (ERTs) for sediment loads for the Burdekin basin and provided the seagrass desired state across the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) by; 1. defining seagrass desired state for the GBR; 2. calculating light requirements; and 3. calculating ERTs for terrestrially sourced sediment loads, using Cleveland Bay as a case study. Historical and new data collections were compiled and used to derive ERTs via statistical models and eReefs Relocatable Coastal Model (RECOM), and the seagrass submodel in eReefs was used to test ERTs.