The aims of this project are: (1) to identify and simulate key physical factors that have significant impacts on ecological processes on shelf and coastal areas of southwestern Western Australia (WA); and (2) to develop physical, ecological, and risk assessment models that can be used to assess impacts of multiple human use on coastal and shelf environments. The project consists of five main components: analysis of large scale climate forcing, development and application of regional and coastal circulation models, development of integrated biogeochemical/ecological models, development of coastal impact models, and risk assessment. This project will link existing field data, field observations from other SRFME projects, and output from new and existing models, with management objectives and needs defined by Western Australian stakeholders. Specific models to be developed include regional and coastal oceanographic models, biogeochemical / ecological models that links physical and ecological processes, and risk assessment models that link these models to human use of the marine environment. The project intends to build on methods and models already developed and/or used by other CMR projects such as the NWSJEMS and LWRDDC projects. These models will be adapted and extended to allow assessment of impacts of multiple use and natural forcing on nutrient cycling, production and habitat quality on shelf and coastal areas in southwestern WA. These tools will range from process-based simulation models to semi-empirical models, with a focus on making efficient use of existing data, and incorporating new data from large-scale observations such as acoustic and satellite data. The main deliverables of the project include analysis of large scale climate forcing, development and application of regional and coastal scale oceanographic, integrated biogeochemical/ecological, and coastal impact models and risk assessment methods.
