LOSS OF NUTRIENTS FROM CATCHMENTS AND THEIR ECOLOGICAL IMPACTS IN THE PEEL-HARVEY ESTUARINE SYSTEM, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Rivers draining coastal-plain soils with a low phosphorus-binding capacity load nutrients into the estuarine system in winter. Phosphorus is largely trapped by diatom blooms and recycled via the sediments to support growth, during the warmer months, of blue-green algae in Harvey Estuary or macroalgae in Peel Inlet. The magnitude of blue-green algae (Nodularia) blooms is related to the amount of river water entering in winter; blooms collapse as salinities rise toward that of the ocean. For macroalgae the relationship between light and nutrient availability is of critical importance. Control measures are concerned with reducing phosphorus loads from catchments and increasing water exchange with the ocean through the proposed construction of a new channel.