# Burdekin River, NE Queensland October-September river flow reconstructed from luminescence range: 1648-2011 #----------------------------------------------------------------------- # World Data Service for Paleoclimatology, Boulder # and # NOAA Paleoclimatology Program #----------------------------------------------------------------------- # NOTE: Please cite Publication, and Online_Resource and date accessed when using these data. # If there is no publication information, please cite Investigators, Title, and Online_Resource and date accessed. # # Online_Resource: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/18917 # Online_Resource: http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/coral/west_pacific/lough2015/lough2015-hav31b.txt # # Original_Source_URL: # # Description/Documentation lines begin with # # Data lines have no # # # Archive: Corals and Sclerosponges # # Parameter_Keywords: reconstruction; physical properties #-------------------- # Contribution_Date # Date: 2015-06-24 #-------------------- # Title # Study_Name: Burdekin River, NE Queensland October-September river flow reconstructed from luminescence range: 1648-2011 #-------------------- # Investigators # Investigators: Lough, J.M.; Lewis, S.E.; Cantin, N.E. #-------------------- # Description_Notes_and_Keywords # Description: Reconstructed October-September Burdekin River flow (km3). Annual luminescence range data for 1 long core and 4 modern short cores are also provided. # #-------------------- # Publication # Authors: Lough, J.M., S.E. Lewis, and N.E. Cantin # Published_Date_or_Year: 2015 # Published_Title: Freshwater impacts in the central Great Barrier Reef: 1648-2011 # Journal_Name: Coral Reefs # Volume: # Edition: # Issue: # Pages: # Report_Number: # DOI: 10.1007/s00338-015-1297-8 # Online_Resource: # Full_Citation: # Abstract: The Australian summer monsoon is highly variable from year to year resulting in high variability in the magnitude and extent of freshwater river flood plumes affecting the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). These flood plumes transport terrestrial materials and contaminants to the reef and can have significant impacts on both water quality and ecosystem health. The occurrence and intensity of these freshwater flood plumes are reliably recorded as annual luminescent lines in inshore massive corals and occasional luminescent lines in mid-shelf corals. We use measured luminescence in a long Porites core and four recently collected short cores from Havannah Island (a nearshore reef in the central GBR) to reconstruct Burdekin River flow, 1648–2011, and five recent short cores from Britomart Reef (a mid-shelf reef, 65 km northeast of Havannah Island) to assess the frequency of flood plume events extending beyond the inshore to mid-shelf reefs. The reconstruction highlights that the frequency of high flow events has increased in the GBR from 1 in every 20 yr prior to European settlement (1748–1847) to 1 in every 6 yr reoccurrence (1948–2011). Three of the most extreme events in the past 364 yr have occurred since 1974, including 2011. The reconstruction also shows a shift to higher flows, increased variability from the latter half of the nineteenth century, and likely more frequent freshwater impacts on mid-shelf reefs. This change coincided with European settlement of northern Queensland and substantial changes in land use, which resulted in increased sediment loads exported to the GBR. The consequences of increased sediment loads to the GBR were, therefore, likely exacerbated by this climate shift. This change in Burdekin River flow characteristics appears to be associated with a shift towards greater El Niño–Southern Oscillation variability and rapid warming in the southwest Pacific, evident in independent palaeoclimatic records. #------------------ # Funding_Agency # Funding_Agency_Name: Australian Institute of Marine Science # Grant: #------------------ # Site_Information # Site_Name: Havannah Island # Location: Great Barrier Reef # Country: Australia # Northernmost_Latitude: -18.85 # Southernmost_Latitude: -18.85 # Easternmost_Longitude: 146.55 # Westernmost_Longitude: 146.55 # Elevation: #------------------ # Data_Collection # Collection_Name: HAV31B Lough15 # Earliest_Year: 1984 # Most_Recent_Year: 2010 # Time_Unit: AD # Core_Length: # Notes: #------------------ # Chronology_Information # Chronology: # #---------------- # Variables # # Data variables follow are preceded by "##" in columns one and two. # Data line variables format: Variables list, one per line, shortname-tab-longname-tab-longname components (9 components: what, material, error, units, seasonality, archive, detail, method, C or N for Character or Numeric data) # ## age_AD age, , , calendar years before present, , , , ,N ## lumin luminescence,,,luminescence units,,corals and sclerosponges,,,N #---------------- # Data: # Data line format - tab-delimited text, variable short name as header # Missing Values: -999 age_AD lumin 1984 0.202 1985 0.097 1986 0.204 1987 0.064 1988 0.118 1989 0.217 1990 0.232 1991 0.482 1992 0.083 1993 0.123 1994 0.078 1995 0.234 1996 0.069 1997 0.253 1998 0.258 1999 0.067 2000 0.307 2001 0.231 2002 0.137 2003 0.124 2004 0.102 2005 0.104 2006 0.048 2007 0.304 2008 0.374 2009 0.386 2010 0.192