Studies

Understanding how a system functions or how a development fits into the local environment is an essential tool for managers and regulators. While some problems require studies stretching over years to understand them, others may be advanced considerably by short, well designed studies. The key to successful studies is being sufficiently familiar with a problem area to ask the right question when designing the study.

Projects

We have conducted many different studies, small and large, which include:

• Developing models of benthic community colonization, creating new habitats and monitoring their development in habitat restoration or creation, for offsets, closure and remediation studies;
• Coral spawning studies examining the timing of mass spawning events or the spawning of single species;
• Coral settlement studies using artificial tiles to assess the supply of larvae to areas;
• An ecological assessment of the relative importance of primary producer groups in Mermaid Sound, on WA’s Pilbara coast using a carbon flux model;
• Enhancing the settlement of coral larvae by culturing larvae and settling them onto an artificial reef;
• Evaluating water quality impacts against statutory guidelines and best practice for outfalls – from wastewater to LNG processing: including complex chemistry studies for developing surrogate monitoring programs.

Technical Information

The delivery of major research outcomes is normally the function of research agencies or universities. Where larger studies are required, our role has been to work between clients and research providers to ensure that the delivered project meets the industry need. Where short concise outcomes are required or the study has a more practical focus with less academic novelty, we design and conduct the study. We maintain a variety of equipment such as light meters, water quality meters, sidescan sonar and other sampling and analysis equipment to support the field components of these studies.