Imagine a plume of brown sediment is washed off the land into Queensland rivers and carried out to sea. Here, it can settle on seagrass and inshore corals, potentially smothering them. River water often also carries nitrogen from fertiliser residue, which can fuel algal growth and damage coral health.
We have long known that poor water quality is a serious threat to areas of the Great Barrier Reef close to shore. The reef faces other major challenges, such as marine heatwaves driven by climate change that trigger large-scale coral bleaching. But unlike climate change, water quality is something Australia can directly control.
