Routes

Australia is unique in being bounded by warm-water poleward-flowing boundary currents off both east (the East Australian Current, EAC) and west (Leeuwin Current) coasts. Although this results in generally low plankton and fisheries productivity, diversity is high and has affinities with the diverse tropical taxa of the tropical Indian and Pacific Oceans. AusCPR is currently observing the plankton monthly along two routes using Continuous Plankton Recorders.

The EAC route extends from Brisbane (Queensland, latitude 27^oS) to Melbourne (Victoria, latitude 37^oS) down the east coast of Australia and follows the southward-flowing warm-water East Australia Current. This region is forecast to warm more than anywhere else in the Southern Hemisphere this century. This CSIRO-run route is towed by a commercial ANL vessel whose generous support is critical to the operation.

The other set of routes are conducted between Australia and Antarctica in collaboration with the SCAR Southern Ocean CPR (SO-CPR) Survey led by the Australian Antarctic Division DEWHA since 1991. Tows are conducted on voyages of the RSV Aurora Australis. The Australian tows combine with tows from 14 other countries within the SO-CPR consortium producing a near circum-Antarctic survey. This provides access to plankton data beyond Australia helping to understand observed changes in a wider regional and global context.

Future Expansion

Additional funding secured in the 2009 Federal Budget will allow the survey to extend out to mid-2013. This will allow for significant enhancements that will provide better coverage and monitoring of Australian plankton communities, as well as contributing to increasing our understanding of regional seas. A number of future routes are planned, and these include the Great Barrier Reef (to identify the response of calcifying plankton to ocean acidification); Southern Australia (across Australia’s largest upwelling system, the Bonney); the Tasman Sea (researching fisheries productivity); and Western Australia (to monitor the impacts of increased development and potential pollution on plankton communities).