27
Groundwater a significant source of pollution on Great Barrier Reef, study shows
(www.theguardian.com)
🤖 I'm a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:
Click here to see the summary
Controlling pollution running on to the reef from farms has been a major focus for governments and agenciess, with scientists saying improving water quality will give corals a better chance of recovering from bleaching events caused by global heating.
UN science experts have repeatedly raised concerns that progress in improving water quality has been too slow and a failure to tackle the issue alongside the climate crisis could risk the reef being placed on a list of world heritage sites in danger.
Dr Douglas Tait, an expert on the chemistry of coastal waters at Southern Cross University and lead author of the research, said the pollutants could take decades to move from farms to underground aquifers before emerging from springs at the coastline and from underwater springs – known as wonky holes – in the reef lagoon itself.
State and federal governments have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to improve water quality in the Great Barrier Reef.
The study’s findings would not change the need to support farmers to use fertilisers more efficiently, Lewis said, but it could help to better target reef funds in the future.
The federal environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, said: “This is welcome research – the better we understand the threats to the Great Barrier Reef, the more we can do to protect and restore it.”
Saved 69% of original text.