Figure 1.
Map detailing (a) the location of the study area (red star) on the east coast of Australia and (b) land-use in the Tully River catchment and the location of Dunk Island coral cores.
Figure 2.
Time series detailing historical fertiliser-P use (tonnes, log scale) in the Tully River catchment 1950-2005 [21,22] and Tully River discharge 1975-2009 (data available: www.derm.qld.gov.au. Accessed 2013, Aug 26).
Blue shaded boxes highlight the discrete 13 year period of contemporaneous river monitoring data.
Figure 3.
Coral chronologies determined from: (a) X-ray image displaying density bands; (b) image taken under UV light displaying luminescent lines of flood events, and (c) Tully river discharge (ML d-1).
Figure 4.
Time series detailing (a) fine resolution P/Ca (log scale, mol mol-1) records from 3 individual Dunk Island coral cores, (b) mean annual records for: P/Ca coral cores (n=3) and Tully River particulate phosphorus loads.
Annual trace element records from each core (numbered 1 to 3) and annual mean values (n=3 cores) for (c) P/Ca (phosphorus proxy), and d) Ba/Ca (sediment proxy). Note: data from the live coral tissue zone have not been included. Blue boxes highlight the discrete 13 year period of contemporaneous river monitoring data.
Figure 5.
Scatter plots detailing mean P/Ca (mol mol-1) from Porites cores from Dunk Island and (a) fertiliser-phosphorus (tonnes), 1950-2005, open circles represent annual means from one long core 1950-1978 and filled circles represent annual means from all three cores from 1979-2005.
Correlation detailed for the three core dataset time period (cores 1-3, 1979-2005) and separately for the longer time-frame (core 3, 1950-1978); (b) Tully River particulate phosphorus loads (tonnes) over 13 years, 1988-2000; and (c) Ba/Ca (mol mol-1) from 1979-2008. All data points represent annual means. Note all 3 graphs show highly significant correlations (p<0.01).