WetlandUpdate July 2020

Catchment Stories: Upper Brisbane, Water Park, and Great Sandy Strait and Surrounding Catchments.

To effectively manage a catchment it is important to have a collective understanding of how the catchment works. Catchment stories use map journals, integrated spatial information, photographs, animations and an informative narrative to demonstrate the features of catchments.

These stories describe the location, extent and values of the Upper Brisbane, Water Park, and Great Sandy Strait and Surrounding Catchments (including Great Sandy Strait, K'gari (Fraser Island), Mainland Coastal Catchments, Mary and Susan Catchments). The stories demonstrate the key features which influence water flow, including geology, topography, rainfall and run-off, natural features, human modifications and land uses. The stories also contain key information on the values of the catchment.

The information was compiled using the walking the landscape process, where experts systematically work through a catchment in a facilitated workshop, incorporating diverse knowledge of the landscape, to develop catchment stories.

Intertidal and Subtidal Products

The Queensland Intertidal and Subtidal Ecosystem Classification scheme (the scheme) provided the understanding and classification of the biological, physical and chemical factors determining the nature and extent of ecosystems that underpins the mapping and ecosystem type descriptions.

Three additional attributes support the scheme below.

WetlandMaps Reporting Tool

The new reporting tool on WetlandMaps allows users to generate reports based on drawn or selected features. These reports are then emailed to users in PDF format so that they're easy to store and access.

The Hydrology of the Great Artesian Basin - animation

User defined treatment system fact sheet

The user defined treatment systems fact sheet tool allows you to create your own fact sheet based on your needs for treatment systems. Use the topic list and then click the relevant sections you wish to include. Those sections are then placed in a PDF format.

Project Factsheets

The Aquatic Ecosystems/Wetlands Rehabilitation and Research (AEWRR) project will use a values-based approach to develop a plan for investing in the rehabilitation, research and offsetting of impacts to aquatic ecosystems in Queensland.

Updates

WetlandMaps and WetlandSummary 

New layers on WetlandMaps: Biogeographic subregions; Drainage divisions; and Great Sandy Marine Park shorebird roost sites.

Updated layers on WetlandMaps and WetlandSummary: Sewage treatment plants; Sewage treatment plant monitoring points; and Catchment Stories.

Legislation toolbox

The programs, policies and legislation pages have been updated to reflect changes to Queensland’s planning programs, policy and legislation relating to wetlands, aquatic ecosystems and species.

Wetland projects search tool

Additional projects have been added to the wetland projects search tool from Greening Australia and Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements.

Additional links

• Birdata - more information can also be found on the birds page.
• Coral restoration database - also available on the rehabilitation page and the Guidelines, reports and tools table.
• Desktop analysis to inform the design for megafauna monitoring within the Reef 2050 Integrated Monitoring and Reporting Program: final report of the shorebirds team in the megafauna expert group - also available through the shorebird, bird, waterbird assessment and monitoring pages and the Guidelines, reports and tools table.
• Digital Earth Australia spatial products - available on the Mapping data links page.
• eBird - more information can also be found on the birds page.
• IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology - also available on the Wetland classification and types page.
• National Light Pollution Guidelines for Wildlife Including Marine Turtles, Seabirds and Migratory Shorebirds - available through the reptiles and birds fauna pages.
• Nature-Based Flood Mitigation Can Help Mississippi River Farmers available on the Wetlands and disaster management page.
• PFAS National Environmental Management Plan - also available on the toxicants page and the Guidelines, reports and tools table.
• Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, Springs Special Issue Vol 126 available on the Groundwater dependent ecosystems page.
• QRA resilience strategy for Mary - also available on WetlandSummary
• Wet Tropics Waterways Podcast on Constructed Wetlands - also available in the Treatment systems toolbox.

WetlandUpdate

The WetlandUpdate is a regular bulletin sent to subscribers to provide them with the latest WetlandInfo resources and tools, as well as case studies, video information and new project fact sheets.

View previous WetlandUpdates

WetlandInfo feedback and improvements

Contact us via email for feedback, information or questions about wetlands.

WetlandInfo feature species - Golden Trevally

Golden Trevally, (Gnathanodon speciosus) juveniles.

Photo by Collette Bagnato.

Our July feature species is the Golden Trevally. Adults are silvery grey, with black spots or blotches scattered on their sides, and often faint bands. Juveniles and sub-adults are bright yellow with narrow blackish bars on their head and sides, the first through the eye.

Adults can be found in both deep lagoons and seaward reefs. They typically feed by rooting for crustaceans and burrowing invertebrates in the sand but may also feed on small fish.

Small juveniles often shelter amongst jellyfish tentacles or protect themselves from predators by "piloting" sharks, other large fish, turtles and in this case a sea snake at Howie Reef.

 

Additional information

• Atlas of Living Australia.
• Fishes of Australia

 

This section is updated regularly, so stay tuned for more!

Last updated: 23 July 2020