Pre-development denudation rates for the Great Barrier Reef catchments derived using 10Be

Apolline Mariotti; Jacky Croke; Rebecca Bartley; Samuel E Kelley; Jay Ward; Réka-Hajnalka Fülöp; Anna H Rood; Dylan H Rood; Alexandru T Codilean; Klaus Wilcken; Keith Fifield

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112731

Pre-development denudation rates for the Great Barrier Reef catchments derived using ¹⁰Be

Mar Pollut Bull. 2021 Nov:172:112731. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112731. Epub 2021 Aug 25.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ School of Earth Science, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland; iCRAG - Irish Centre for Research in Applied Geosciences, University College Dublin, Ireland. Electronic address: apollinemariotti@gmail.com.
² School of Geography, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland.
³ CSIRO Land and Water, GPO Box 2583, Brisbane, QLD 4001, Australia.
⁴ School of Earth Science, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland.
⁵ Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK.
⁶ Australia's Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), Lucas Heights, NSW 2234, Australia; School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia.
⁷ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK; Department of Earth and Environmental Science & A. E. Lalonde AMS Laboratory, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada.
⁸ Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK; Department of Earth and Environmental Science & A. E. Lalonde AMS Laboratory, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada.
⁹ School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia; ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH), University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia.
¹⁰ Australia's Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), Lucas Heights, NSW 2234, Australia.
¹¹ Research School of Physics, The Australian National University, ACT 2601, Australia.

PMID: 34454389
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112731

Abstract

Understanding of the pre-development, baseline denudation rates that deliver sediment to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) has been elusive. Cosmogenic ¹⁰Be in sediment is a useful integrator of denudation rates and sediment yields averaged over large spatial and temporal scales. This study presents ¹⁰Be data from 71 sites across 11 catchments draining to the GBR: representing 80% of the GBR catchment area and provide background sediment yields for the region. Modern, short-term, sediment yields derived from suspended load concentrations are compared to the ¹⁰Be data to calculate an Accelerated Erosion Factor (AEF) that highlights denudation "hot-spots" where sediment yields have increased over the long-term background values. The AEF results show that 58% basins have higher modern sediment yields than long-term yields. The AEF is considered a useful approach to help prioritise on-ground investments in remediation and the additional measured empirical data in this paper will help support future predictive models.

Keywords: (10)Be; Cosmogenic nuclides; Denudation; Great barrier reef; Reef plan; Sediment yield.

MeSH terms

Geologic Sediments*