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Seafood industry to benefit from CSIRO innovation

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18 Dec, 2023

This post was originally published on Sustainability Matters

The CSIRO has developed a monitoring system for water quality that combines data from water sensors and satellites to provide near-real-time monitoring and forecasts — much like a weather service.

Initial testing of the AquaWatch Australia Mission system has been completed in South Australia’s Spencer Gulf, an area that provides much of the country’s seafood.

The Spencer Gulf test site is the first in Australia to demonstrate that the AquaWatch technology works. Successful testing was undertaken in partnership with SmartSat CRC and the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI).

Now, the team’s focus has turned to collecting data to inform the area’s thriving aquaculture industry; this could include warnings about harmful marine events such as algal blooms.

“The Spencer Gulf is called ‘Australia’s seafood basket’ for good reason,” said CSIRO Senior Scientist Dr Nagur Cherukuru.

“The region’s aquaculture will put seafood on the table for thousands of Aussies these holidays, with the local industry’s production worth over $238 million a year.

“We’re reaching out to the industry to be early adopters of AquaWatch, allowing them to monitor and forecast water quality as we build the system.”

Spencer Gulf aquaculture pens.

Kirsten Rough, Research Scientist at the Australian Southern Bluefin Tuna Industry Association, said the Spencer Gulf is a great area for aquaculture because it typically enjoys good water quality that makes for healthy fish. However, she explained that current water monitoring efforts need improvement.

“In certain conditions, algal blooms can form, which threaten our stock and can cause significant losses for the industry,” Rough said.

“Whilst we do monitor water quality, it’s currently time-consuming and labour-intensive.

“Real-time monitoring means we can scale up surveillance and adjust feeding cycles. Early-warning forecasts would allow for planning decisions like moving pens out of the way of harmful algae,” she said.

SARDI oceanographer Dr Mark Doubell said its AquaWatch partnership with CSIRO had significantly boosted the water quality monitoring needed to support the ecologically sustainable growth of aquaculture in the region.

“The delivery of real-time data and improved satellite observations on water quality provides new information that complements existing operational oceanographic models to inform on the ecologically sustainable use and development of our precious marine systems,” Doubell said.

Professor Andy Koronios, CEO of SmartSat CRC, said his team was working hand in hand with CSIRO to harness data from satellites so as to better manage a valuable resource.

“AquaWatch is establishing critical infrastructure through a state-of-the-art data system and national water sensor networks to help our country become more resilient to extreme weather and adverse marine events.

“The technologies and capabilities that we are developing for the nation will result in commercial opportunities in aquaculture, in fisheries and in making Australia a high-tech nation,” Koronios said.

CSIRO is inviting Traditional Custodians and industry partners to help co-design the next phase to extend water quality monitoring of the Spencer Gulf and deliver data to decision-makers and Elders.

For more information, visit https://www.csiro.au/AquaWatch.

Top image caption: An AquaWatch water quality sensor in the Spencer Gulf. Images courtesy of CSIRO.

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Land water loss causes sea level rise in 21st century

Land water loss causes sea level rise in 21st century

An international team of scientists, led jointly by The University of Melbourne and Seoul National University, has found global water storage on land has plummeted since the start of the 21st century, overtaking glacier melt as the leading cause of sea level rise and measurably shifting the Earth’s pole of rotation.

Published in Science, the research combined global soil moisture data estimated by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) Reanalysis v5 (ERA5), global mean sea level measurements and observations of Earth’s pole movement in order to estimate changes in terrestrial (land) water storage (TWS) from 1979 to 2016.

“The study raises critical questions about the main drivers of declining water storage on land and whether global lands will continue to become drier,” University of Melbourne author Professor Dongryeol Ryu said.

“Water constantly cycles between land and oceans, but the current rate of water loss from land is outpacing its replenishment. This is potentially irreversible because it’s unlikely this trend will reverse if global temperatures and evaporative demand continue to rise at their current rates. Without substantial changes in climate patterns, the imbalance in the water cycle is likely to persist, leading to a net loss of water from land to oceans over time.”

Between 2000 and 2002, soil moisture decreased by around 1614 gigatonnes (1 Gt equals 1 km3 of water) — nearly double Greenland’s ice loss of about 900 Gt in 2002–2006. From 2003 to 2016, soil moisture depletion continued, with an additional 1009 Gt lost.

Soil moisture had not recovered as of 2021, with little likelihood of recovery under present climate conditions. The authors say this decline is corroborated by independent observations of global mean sea level rise (~4.4 mm) and Earth’s polar shift (~45 cm in 2003–2012).

Water loss was most pronounced across East and Central Asia, Central Africa, and North and South America. In Australia, the growing depletion has impacted parts of Western Australia and south-eastern Australia, including western Victoria, although the Northern Territory and Queensland saw a small replenishment of soil moisture.

Image credit: iStock.com/ZU_09

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