Climate change is already impacting species from a range of trophic levels around Australia. In recent years, shifts in species distribution have been documented at a range of lower trophic levels in Australia (Hobday et al 2007), including phytoplankton (Thompson et al 2009), intertidal invertebrates (Pitt et al 2010), and coastal fish (Last et al 2010), and are now underpinning management responses. However, for Australia’s iconic higher trophic level conservation-dependent marine taxa, such as seabirds (and shorebirds) and marine mammals, there is a knowledge gap regarding responses to climate variability and change. These species are protected throughout Australia and in some cases are recovering from previous anthropogenic impacts. Resolution of climate change impacts from other anthropogenic threats is needed for these species, in order to implement appropriate and timely adaptive management responses. Unfortunately, for most species, evidence of responses to environmental variability and the functional processes driving these affects is limited (but see References in Attachment 1). This is seen by managers as a major impediment to ongoing conservation management and planning in the face of climate variability and change. In addition, monitoring approaches for some of these species may also need to be reassessed and modified in order to better detect the impacts of climate change. Efficient ongoing monitoring is also required to allow adaptation responses to be validated. Results from this proposal will support adaptation by researchers undertaking the monitoring and adaptation by managers. Furthermore, options for enhancing the adaptive capacity of species impacted by climate change will fostered as a result of this project. (References provided in Attachment 1).

Most of the impacts on estuaries result from the land use pattern of their contributing catchments. Understanding the trend and condition of Australia’s estuaries will do much to provide a report card of the aggregate impact of our land use activities across catchments on the natural environment as well as providing a framework for more strategic estuary management.
Estuaries are the subject of systemic failure – for example, the estuary based oyster industry in NSW and southern Queensland has reduced in value in the last 3 years from $50M to $30M – most of which is related to impacts of land use.
Estuaries are key landscapes for recreational use and commercial use, with many fish and prawn species using estuaries for nursery and sometimes maturation phases of their lifecycles. Estuaries are greatly impacted upon by our growing population – with predictions that the next 5M people in Australia will virtually all live around estuaries.
Given the widespread nature of the problem, there is a need to take a national overview of the state of estuaries and identify mechanisms for restoring their health.