Coral Sea Coral Reef Health: In situ measurements of temperature and current flow

Summary

The Coral Sea Marine Park is potentially well-connected to adjacent biogeographical provinces owing to westward flowing jets of the Southern Equatorial Current, more specifically, the north Vanuatu jet and the New Caledonia jet. However, patterns of connectivity for the Coral Sea are poorly understood due to

1. the lack of long-term measurements of water circulation and oceanographic conditions and
2. the inherent constraints in existing hydrodynamic models.

Critically, the development and improvement of both biophysical and underlying hydrodynamic models is fundamentally reliant on observational data, requiring in situ measurements of environmental conditions over extended periods at a wide range of locations.

A total of 84 Marotte HS (high sampling rate) drag and tilt current meters were deployed during the course of this study, mostly within the Coral Sea Marine Park (CSMP), providing time series measurements for flow velocity and direction, as well as temperature.

Importantly, separate field trips were undertaken to ensure timely deployment of current meters at select reefs (mainly, Osprey and Bougainville Reefs) to record environmental conditions throughout the critical summer period (December – February).