Sediment and Water Quality Data for 12 Wave-Dominated Estuaries in Southwest Australia

12 estuaries in southwest Western Australia are analyzed for surface sediment and water column nutrient concentrations. The dataset examines relationships between sediment loads, total nitrogen, phosphorus, organic carbon, chlorophyll a, and sulfur ratios. It was published by Geoscience Australia Data and last updated in May 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling the relationship between sediment loads and nutrient concentrations based on the described inverse correlation.
• Assessing water quality problems associated with soil erosion at intermediate sediment loads.
• Studying organic matter degradation via sulfate reduction using sediment TOC:TS and TS:Fe(II) ratios.
• Investigating the impact of sediment flushing on estuarine health based on the limited evidence presented.

Strengths

• Covers 12 distinct estuaries with calculated sediment loads ranging from 0.2 to 10.8 kg m-2 year-1.
• Includes multiple measured variables: sediment total nitrogen, phosphorus, organic carbon, chlorophyll a, and sulfur ratios.
• Analysis connects sediment loads to geochemical processes like weathering and sulfidation.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Freshness should be verified as the last update date is in the future (2026-05-14).

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Examination of surface sediment and water column samples from 12 estuaries.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-14 03:47:16.319711

Geography

Wave-dominated estuaries of southwest Western Australia