Diuron Pesticide Dispersal Model in the Great Barrier Reef

Aggregating results from a 1 km resolution hydrodynamic and transport model simulating the dispersal of the pesticide diuron in the Great Barrier Reef marine environment. The simulation period spans from January 2016 to July 2018, quantifying diuron loads from 16 rivers and incorporating a modeled half-life of 40 days for diuron in marine waters.

Use Cases

• Analyze diuron concentration fluctuations on an hourly time step within each 1 km model grid cell.
• Model river plume dynamics using unique conservative tracers for each of the 16 rivers to quantify water composition percentages.
• Validate simulated diuron distributions against observations from 11 monitoring sites to refine the 40-day half-life parameter.
• Investigate the surface flux entry points for diuron loads from specific high-risk rivers like the Murray, Mossman, Proserpine, Burrum, and Plane.

Strengths

• Simulation covers a specific 2.5-year period from January 2016 to July 2018.
• Model operates at a high 1 km spatial resolution nested within a 4 km model for boundary stability.
• Incorporates a scientifically derived half-life parameter of 40 days for diuron, validated against 11 monitoring sites.
• Represents freshwater and diuron input from 16 distinct rivers in the Great Barrier Reef catchment.

Limitations

• Dataset size, row count, and specific column structure are unknown from the provided input.
• Model outputs are synthetic and depend on the assumptions and parameterizations of the GBR-Dynamic SedNet and eReefs models.
• The simulation period ends in July 2018, which may not reflect current conditions or more recent pesticide runoff events.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Generated by the eReefs GBR1 hydrodynamic and transport model, nested inside the GBR4 model, using the GBR-Dynamic SedNet catchment model for diuron load inputs.

Time Range

January 2016 to July 2018

Freshness

The metadata was last updated on 2026-03-21, but the simulation data itself covers up to July 2018.

Geography

Great Barrier Reef marine environment, Australia