Algal Response to Sewage Nutrients in Tropical Tidal Creeks

A study comparing phytoplankton and benthic microalgae responses to nutrient loads in tidal creeks with and without secondary treated sewage in a tropical estuary. The dataset likely contains measurements of sewage markers, nutrient concentrations, primary productivity rates, and chlorophyll a. It was published by the Australian Ocean Data Network and last updated in June 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling the relationship between sewage discharge and algal primary productivity based on nutrient concentration data.
• Comparing the sensitivity of phytoplankton versus benthic microalgae to nutrient pollution as described in the study.
• Tracking the spatial dispersion of sewage nutrients using coprostanol marker concentrations mentioned in the description.
• Assessing nitrogen limitation and saturation in coastal water columns under different sewage input scenarios.

Strengths

• Data is based on an in-situ field study comparing creeks with and without sewage discharge.
• Includes measurements of a specific sewage marker (coprostanol) alongside nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations.
• Compares responses across two algal communities: phytoplankton and benthic microalgae.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to data_gov_au, focusing on a specific tropical estuary.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network via data_gov_au

Collection Method

Field study comparing tidal creeks with and without secondary treated sewage discharge.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-05 07:24:00.351446; freshness should be verified.

Geography

A tropical estuary (location unspecified).