F.E. Wells, D.I. Walker and D.S. Jones (eds) 2003.

The Marine Flora and Fauna of Dampier, Western Australia. Western Australian Museum, Perth.

A review of the oceanography of the Dampier Archipelago, Western Australia

Alan Pearce1, Steve Buchan2, Tony Chiffings3, Nick DAdamo4, Chris Fandry5, Peter Fearns6, Des Mills5, Rob Phillips7 and Chris Simpson4
2

CSIRO Marine Research, Private Bag 5, Wembley, Western Australia 6913 WNI Oceanographers & Meteorologists, 31 Bishop St, Jolimont, Western Australia 6014 3 24 Victoria St, Guildford, Western Australia 6055 4 Marine Conservation Branch, Department of Conservation and Land Management, 47 Henry St, Fremantle, Western Australia 6160 5 Department of Environmental Protection, Westralia Square, 141 St Georges Terrace, Perth, Western Australia 6000 6 School of Physical Sciences, Curtin University of Technology, GPO Box U1987, Perth, Western Australia 6845 7 International Risk Consultants, 26 Colin St, West Perth, Western Australia 6005

Abstract This review provides an oceanographic background for the biological field surveys of the Dampier Archipelago undertaken in July/August 2000. It attempts to summarise the main oceanographic processes affecting the waters of the Archipelago in the context of the wider North West Shelf, using both the published literature and previously unpublished data. The shallow Archipelago waters are strongly influenced by climate- and seasonal-scale processes, meteorological events and diurnal forcing. El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events are associated with cooler shelf water and lower sea levels (partly linked with changes in the strength of the Leeuwin Current), while there is correspondingly warmer water and higher sea levels during La Nina periods. Winds vary seasonally, with a westerly tendency in summer, a southeasterly trend during the winter, and more variable winds in the intervening seasons. Relatively strong land/sea breezes of up to 10 m/s can be superimposed on the synoptic pattern in both summer and winter. The most extreme winds occur during the passage of tropical cyclones through the area between November and April, generating wind gusts of up to 70 m/s. Although an average of 3 to 5 tropical cyclones approach the North West Shelf each year, typically only 1 or 2 pass within 200 km of Dampier. Tides in the Dampier Archipelago are semidiurnal with a well-defined spring-neap lunar cycle; the mean neap and spring tidal ranges are 1.0 and 3.6 m, respectively. The highest astronomical tides can reach 5 m in height, but storm surges (especially during cyclones) can appreciably raise sea levels above the predicted tidal height. Tsunamis are rare off Western Australia but can also cause appreciable sea level surges. Seas and swell on the open shelf off Dampier are generally heaviest in winter (from the northeast) and lightest in late summer (typically from the west); only 10% of significant wave heights exceed 1.2 m and the median height is about 0.7 m. Tropical cyclones may generate swell with heights of up to 10 m at the entrance to Mermaid Sound. Appreciable attenuation takes place within the Dampier Archipelago itself, with wave heights typically reducing by 50% during propagation down Mermaid Sound. Seasonal water temperatures in Mermaid Sound range from about 22C in winter to 30C in summer,

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A. PEARCE et al. with measured extremes of about 20 to 33C. Monthly mean air temperatures vary between around 20C in July and 32C in January/February; monthly mean maximum and minimum temperatures are 36.1C (in February) and 13.6C (in July) respectively. Currents in the Dampier Archipelago are largely caused by tides, local winds, large scale ocean circulation and continental shelf waves, and are strongly influenced by the local topography. Tidal current speeds at the offshore seaward entrances of the Archipelago and in some of the inter-island water passages can reach 50 cm/s but are generally much weaker in Mermaid Sound (of order 20 cm/s during spring tides and half this during neaps). During winter, the dominantly southerly to easterly winds drive water westwards between the islands of the Archipelago, while in summer the prevailing westerlies force the water eastwards through Mermaid Strait. Currents generated by cyclonic winds in summer can reach 40 cm/s. The Leeuwin Current flows southwestward along the outer continental shelf, most strongly from February to July with speeds of order 20 cm/s, but has little effect on the waters inside the Archipelago. The propagation of continental shelf waves forced by the alongshore wind stress (particularly during the passage of tropical cyclones) can generate alongshore current surges exceeding 40 cm/s. The waters of the Archipelago are oligotrophic, and water quality characteristics are highly variable through the Archipelago. Wind-driven waves are primarily responsible for resuspending sediment in the water column, and on occasion during spring/summer plankton blooms contribute locally to turbidity. High spatial and seasonal variability are evident in nutrient and chlorophyll-a distributions, and the few measurements available do not show any consistent seasonal or cross-shelf pattern. Chlorophyll-a levels are generally below 0.3 mg/m3, with the highest concentrations exceeding 1 mg/ m3 near the coast in autumn/winter. Finally, environmental conditions (tides, winds, sea and air temperatures) in the Archipelago during the 3-week period of the AMSA Workshop in July/August 2000 are briefly described.

INTRODUCTION The Dampier Archipelago is a complex of over 40 islands stretching from Cape Preston (11612'E) eastwards to Cape Lambert (11711'E) off the Pilbara coast of the North West Shelf (NWS). It lies in the biogeographical overlap region between the Tropical Indo-Pacific and Warm Temperate oceanic zones (Osborne et al., 2000), and the diversity and distribution of the flora and fauna reflect this overlap. Conditions in this part of the NWS are generally aridtropical, with warm water, a relatively high tidal range (compared with the micro-tidal regime further south), seasonally-varying cross-shelf gradients in water properties and sporadic disturbance by tropical cyclones during the summer/autumn months. There is a broad and diverse range of ecological habitats, with a consequent variety of marine communities including mangroves, algal meadows, sandy beaches, soft sediment fauna, coral reefs and rocky shores (Osborne et al., 2000). Furthermore, the region is ecologically notable for turtle, marine mammal and seabird populations. The Archipelago is entirely contained within the 30 m isobath which is roughly 25 km from the coast (Figure 1); the bathymetry is generally flat but there are some deeper channels between the islands. The Archipelago is an industrially important region with rapid growth over the past 3 decades in oil/gas processing and other industries, and the port of Dampier is Australias largest tonnage port (IRC Environment, 2002). There are important pearl oyster and prawn fisheries. In response to the areas juxtaposition of high conservation values and high levels of current and projected human usage, it was highlighted as worthy of consideration as a future marine conservation reserve by the Marine Parks and Reserves Selection Working Group (CALM, 1994). To that end, and consistent with State Government policy for marine conservation through reserves, the region from Cape Preston to Nickol Bay has been proposed as a marine conservation reserve under the Conservation and Land Management Act 1984 (Osborne et al., 2000).

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Figure 1 Location chart of the main islands in the Dampier Archipelago, adapted from Forde (1985). This paper uses temperature/salinity/nutrient sections along transect AB, wind data from Conzinc Island, weather information from the Withnell Bay area and tidal measurements at King Bay.

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The need to ensure that current and future human usage of the area is ecologically sustainable has spawned many studies of the oceanography and ecology through tertiary institutions and both State and Commonwealth research organisations. The North West Shelf Joint Environmental Management Study (NWSJEMS) is a current joint venture study between the Western Australian Department of Environmental Protection and CSIRO Marine Research to develop techniques for regional planning and management of the marine ecosystems on the western NWS, including the Dampier Archipelago. Much research has also been conducted by biological, engineering and oceanographic consultants some of the oceanographic work has been published but much remains in the form of unpublished contract reports. This review of oceanographic conditions in the Dampier Archipelago will provide an environmental background to the Woodside Dampier Marine Biological Workshop which was run by the Western Australian Branch of the Australian Marine Sciences Association (AMSA) between 25th July and 11th August 2000. The Workshop aimed to improve the understanding of the marine biodiversity of the area, covering most of the Archipelago from Enderby Island in the west to Delambre Island in the east (i.e. longitudes 11630 to 1175'E). Because of the large amount of oceanographic and biological work that has been undertaken in the Dampier region over the past 2 decades, this review can at best only summarize the main features of the physical environment and point to the greater detail contained in the extensive published and unpublished literature. Other recent reviews of the area are in Church and Craig (1998), Sherwood et al. (1999), Osborne et al. (2000) and Heyward et al. (2000), while Jernakoff et al. (1999) have prepared a bibliography relating to marine research on the NWS. The climate of the region and local wind regime are dealt with in Section 2 of the paper. Tidal characteristics are discussed in Section 3, and waves (including both distant swells and locallygenerated seas) are described in Section 4. The temperature/salinity/density distributions across the Archipelago are summarised in Section 5; Section 6 describes the regional and local ocean current regime, and water quality properties (nutrients and chlorophyll) are discussed in Section 7. Section 8 focusses on the meteorological and oceanographic conditions over the period of the AMSA Workshop, and some conclusions relevant to the ecology of the area are presented in Section 9.

CLIMATE AND METEOROLOGY The climate of the Dampier Archipelago is both arid and tropical, being controlled seasonally by the meridional position of the large high pressure cells which pass from west to east across the Australian continent (Osborne et al., 2000). These pressure systems with their anticlockwise wind circulation migrate from a latitude of about 25 30S in winter to 35 40S in summer, resulting in two broadly defined climatic seasons over northwestern Australia: a warm winter season from May to September and a hot summer season from October to April. General information on the climate of the northwest coast and the Dampier Archipelago may be obtained from Forde (1985), Division of National Mapping (1986), Simpson (1988), Australian Bureau of Statistics (1989) and Buchan and Stroud (1993). Winds While the Bureau of Meteorology has operated a number of meteorological stations in the Archipelago region over recent decades, the only two stations currently providing wind readings

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Figure 2 Seasonal wind roses derived from anemometer data at Conzinc Island for January 1983 (representing summer), April 1982 (autumn), July 1982 (winter) and October 1982 (spring), showing the proportion of the time that winds were blowing in different speed ranges (on the right) from each compass sector. The frequency rings are in 5% intervals, the central circle containing the percentage of calms. Reproduced from Osborne et al. (2000) and Pitt and Mills (1985).

are automatic weather stations at Karratha Airport, which reports half-hourly, and Legendre Island, reporting hourly (John Cramb, pers.comm.). Wind measurements were made by the Western Australian Department of Conservation and Environment at Conzinc Island (Figure 1) between September 1981 and July 1984 (Pitt and Mills, 1985; Forde, 1985) to complement current measurements being undertaken in the Archipelago. Sample wind roses from Pitt and Mills (1985) are used here to illustrate typical seasonal wind regimes (Figure 2), while the monthly mean wind vectors in Figure 3 clearly show the seasonal patterns in wind strength and direction, as well as giving some indication of interannual variability. In summer, the more southward position of the high pressure cells results in a preponderance of warmer winds from the northwest to southwest sector (Figures 2 and 3). There is a pattern of daytime seabreezes and nighttime land breezes; however wind speeds are typically less than 10 m/s (20 knots). During winter, on the other hand, the more northerly position of the high pressure belt results in a prevailing easterly to southeasterly offshore flow of relatively cool air (the South East

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Figure 3 Monthly mean wind vectors from Conzinc Island between September 1981 and July 1984, prepared from data in Pitt and Mills (1985). There were no readings in July and December 1983 and the first 5 months of 1984. The wind speed scale (0 to 5 m/s) is indicated lower left, and the vectors are in the direction to which the wind is blowing.

Trades) over the northwest, which may be modified by local land/sea breezes. The offshore winds are enhanced by late night to early morning southeasterly land breezes as the land cools and are moderated by afternoon northwesterly sea breezes as the land heats. Winds reach speeds of 10 15 m/s inshore and can occasionally peak over 20 m/s (40 knots) further offshore. Wind patterns are at their weakest and most variable during the seasonal changeovers between summer and winter, which occur around April and August (Osborne et al., 2000). While these wind patterns from Conzinc Island should be representative of the wind field in the Archipelago generally, Holloway and Nye (1985) caution that coastal wind observations are not always a good indication of the wind field further out across the continental shelf. Tropical cyclones The most extreme winds occur during the passage of tropical cyclones through the area the coast between Broome and Exmouth is the most cyclone-prone region in Australia (Crowder, 2000). They tend to form between November and April over the Timor Sea or off the northwest coast, and can result in wind gusts exceeding 70 m/s (140 knots). Forty-nine tropical cyclones passed within 200 km of Dampier between 1965 and 2000 (an average of 1.4 per year Bureau of Meteorology pers.comm.), with 75% occurring between January and March. Of these, the closest passed only 24 km from Dampier. About half of the cyclones had central winds exceeding 50 m/s (100 knots), although these speeds were not encountered in the Archipelago itself.

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Rainfall and evaporation Although rainfall patterns are highly variable (Division of National Mapping, 1986), there is a pronounced seasonal pattern in precipitation and evaporation, both of which have an important influence on the properties of the coastal waters. Most rainfall occurs over the period January to May (Figure 4a) when the southern position of high-pressure cells allows the entry of the tropical low-pressure rain-bearing depressions and cyclonic systems into the northwest of the State. The mean annual rainfall at the Dampier Salt site near Karratha is 249 mm (Bureau of Meteorology, 1988), with over half of this amount occurring between January and March.

Figure 4 (a) Monthly mean rainfall for Dampier from Bureau of Meteorology (1988 solid line with circles) and monthly evaporation (dashed line with diamonds) from Port Hedland (CALM unpublished data). (b) Monthly mean air temperatures at Dampier, with the monthly minima and maxima (diamonds; from Bureau of Meteorology, 1988).

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Rainfall is highly variable from year to year as a result of occasional heavy downpours the highest daily rainfalls at Port Hedland in January and February can be four times the long term monthly averages (CALM unpublished data). The major river in the Dampier region is the Fortescue River which enters the sea west of the Archipelago. It flows most strongly during summer/autumn (Public Works Department of Western Australia, 1984), mainly in response to heavy bursts of cyclone-related rainfall, with monthly flow rates exceeding 50 m 3/s about once in every two/three years on average (unpublished data, Water and Rivers Commission). During flood times, large volumes of sediment-laden water enter the coastal environment (Osborne et al., 2000). Monthly evaporation for the Dampier Archipelago far exceeds the rainfall (Figure 4a), approaching 400 mm during the summer months and dropping to half this amount in winter. The net annual evaporation is almost 3500 mm, an order of magnitude higher than the net rainfall for the region. Air temperature and humidity The monthly mean air temperature at Karratha (Dampier Salt) peaks at about 32C between January and March and is at its lowest around 20C in July (Figure 4b data from Bureau of Meteorology, 1988). The maximum and minimum mean temperatures in individual months are 36.1C (February) and 13.6C (July) respectively, while the extreme recorded temperatures are 47.1C and 4.6C respectively (Osborne et al., 2000). Relative humidity in the Dampier/Karratha area is appreciably higher during summer than in winter and spring, with summer morning humidities exceeding 50% (dropping in the afternoons) and winter/spring values generally between 30% and 40%. The least humid month is September.

TIDES AND SEA LEVEL CHANGES The tidal regime for the NWS is described in some detail by Easton (1970), who pointed out the large increase in tidal range (low to high water) between Exmouth and Broome, while Holloway (1983) has discussed the main features of the tides near Dampier using current measurements taken offshore of the Archipelago. The main tide gauge in the Dampier region has operated at King Bay since 1982. The tides are semidiurnal (two highs and lows each day) with a slight diurnal inequality (difference in heights between successive highs and lows). There is a well-defined spring-neap lunar cycle, with spring tides occurring approximately 2 days after the new and full moon. The largest tides of the year occur in April. A typical tidal chart from Dampier (Figure 5, from Osborne et al., 2000) shows the spring tides peaking at about 4.5 m around the 4th and 19th July, and neaps of about 1.5 m near the 11th and 26th July. The standard tide levels for King Bay, Dampier are (Australian Hydrographic Service, 2002): Highest Astronomical Tide (HAT) 5.1 m Mean High Water Springs (MHWS) 4.5 m Mean High Water Neaps (MHWN) 3.2 m Mean Sea Level (MSL) 2.7 m Mean Low Water Neaps (MLWN) 2.2 m Mean Low Water Springs (MLWS) 0.8 m Lowest Astronomical Tide (LAT) 0.1 m

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Figure 5 Typical tidal record from King Bay (Figure 1) for the month of July 1996, from Osborne et al. (2000).

Computer modelling has shown that the tidal wave propagates in from the open ocean in the northwest. Tidal ranges increase from 2 m at the entrance to the Archipelago to 2.2 m at the head of Mermaid Sound and reach 2.8 m in Nickol Bay. Relatively large sea level gradients between the Sound and Nickol Bay give rise to high current flows in the channels connecting the two basins (tidal currents are discussed in more detail in Section 6). Superimposed on the astronomical tides are meteorological tides resulting from changes in atmospheric pressure and strong onshore or offshore winds. Storm surges during cyclones, in particular, can appreciably raise sea levels above the predicted astronomical tidal height and inundate low-lying areas. Tsunamis are rare off Western Australia their likelihood at any specific location on the NWS is less than 1 in 100 years (WNI, 1998). They are generated by submarine earthquakes or volcanic activity and can result in long waves of very high energy propagating across the ocean before devastating coastal communities in their path. While there is some evidence of early tsunami activity along the northwest coast (Easton 1970), only three tsunamis have actually been recorded in this region: Krakatoa in August 1883, one originating in the Sunda Arc in August 1977, and the well-documented event of June 1994. During the last-named, an earthquake south of Java resulted in a 4 m surge causing some damage near Northwest Cape (Foley, 1994). The tide gauge at King Bay near Dampier recorded a brief 50 cm surge, although there is anecdotal evidence (Foley, 1994) that the actual wave amplitude may have been much higher, indicating that there is some degree of susceptibility to tsunami activity in the Archipelago.

WAVES Wave climatology The seastate of the NWS comprises contributions from four main sources: swell generated in the Southern Ocean, winter easterly swell, tropical cyclone swell and local wind-generated sea. Note that all discussion relates to the significant wave height, which is a characteristic wave height representing the average height of the highest one third of the waves; individual wave heights may be up to twice as high as the significant wave.

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Figure 6 Typical summer and winter significant wave roses for (upper) an exposed location near Legendre Island at the entrance to Mermaid Sound and (lower) a sheltered location within Mermaid Sound, showing the proportion of time the waves were coming from each compass sector. The wave height scale is in the lower centre of the diagram, and the frequency rings are in 15% intervals. Data courtesy of WNI Science and Engineering (now WNI Oceanographers & Meteorologists) and Woodside Energy Ltd.

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Wave measurements have been made at several locations (west of Legendre Island, east of Malus Island and west of Withnell Bay) for many years in the early 1980s, while real-time measurements adjacent the Woodside Shipping Channel have been ongoing since 1991. All wave data collected within the Dampier Archipelago are proprietary to the industry clients for whom the data were collected Hamilton (1997) provides a listing of wave data sources. The only publicly available samples of the Dampier wave measurements are those presented in Buchan & Stroud (1993). Exposed North West Shelf waters Other than the unpublished data sources detailed in Hamilton (1997), the only general descriptions of seastates in exposed waters off the Dampier Archipelago are those presented in the regional perspective of Osborne et al. (2000) and the marine data review of Heywood et al. (2000). Buchan & Stroud (1993) provide additional samples of wave data in water depths ranging from 30 to 125m across the continental shelf off Dampier. Wave conditions affecting the oceanic or northwest-facing coastlines of the Dampier Archipelago are represented by wave measurements conducted off the northwestern tip of Legendre Island (upper roses in Figure 6 WNI unpublished data). Apart from cyclone activity, seastates tend to be heaviest from the northeast in winter (June and July) and lightest in late summer (April) when they come typically from the west and northwest, though some swell persists from the northwest all year. Only 10% of seastates exceed 1.2 m, with the median height being 0.7 m. Southern Ocean swell typically arrives at the outer edge of the continental shelf from the south and southwest, before refracting (changing direction) around the Montebello Islands (which are to the west of Dampier) to reach Mermaid Sound from the northwest after significant attenuation. It tends to be higher (typically 2 m) during winter than in summer (about 1 m) because the generating storms move further north in winter. Swell periods are generally of the order of 12 to 16 seconds. Where sufficient fetch is available (at least 200 km), the synoptic winter easterlies which prevail over the NWS may generate an easterly or northeasterly swell of 6 to 8 seconds period. Such swell will have some influence in the outer shelf portions of the NWS region (1 to 2 m height) but should only affect northern shores of the offshore islands of the Dampier Archipelago. Tropical cyclones, which occur between the months of November and April (see Section 2), will generate waves which tend to propagate radially out from the storm centre. Depending upon such parameters as storm size, intensity, relative location and forward speed, tropical cyclones may generate swell of 6 to 18 seconds period from any direction, with heights ranging up to 10 m at the entrance to Mermaid Sound. Local wind-generated sea typically ranges in period from 2 to 6 seconds, but may attain 7 seconds under very persistent forcing. Wave heights are extremely variable, ranging up to 6 m under non-tropical cyclone conditions. Seastates within the Dampier Archipelago Within the Archipelago itself, sea conditions are strongly influenced by sheltering although other factors such as refraction and bottom friction also act to reduce wave height and influence wave direction. Typically, wave heights reduce by at least 50% during propagation down Mermaid Sound.

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The Archipelago is well sheltered from Southern Ocean swell due to the shallow waters between Barrow Island to the west and the mainland. Sheltering also has a profound effect on tropical cyclone wave penetration into the Archipelago, and cyclone-generated wave heights inside Mermaid Sound are unlikely to exceed 5 m and will often be reduced to less than 2.5 m. Wave conditions near Withnell Bay in Mermaid Sound are illustrated in the wave roses of Figure 6 (WNI unpublished data). At this site, swell is constrained to arrive from due north and local wind waves are usually fetch-limited and conform to the direction of the forcing wind (typically southwesterly in summer, but with increasing incidence of easterlies in winter). In contrast to the offshore conditions described above, 90% of wave heights in southern Mermaid Sound are less than 0.6 m with a median height of about 0.35 m.

TEMPERATURE, SALINITY AND DENSITY Temperature measurements have been undertaken in Mermaid Sound for the petroleum industry since the early 1980s but the data are largely unpublished. Temperatures were recorded between the water surface and seabed in 14 m water depth at the Dolphin Berth between December 1983 and December 1984, and mid-depth temperature records continued at that location until September 1987 (WNI unpublished data). Surface water temperatures have also been monitored at the Navaid 9 Directional Waverider buoy near Withnell Bay (Figure 1) since November 1992 (WNI unpublished data). A series of 6-weekly surveys within the Dampier Archipelago was conducted in 1982/83 by the then-named Western Australian Department of Conservation and Environment (DCE) (Forde, 1985). At each station, vertical profiles of temperature and salinity were made between the surface and the seabed at times of neap tides, enabling both the cross-shelf and vertical temperature and salinity distributions to be assessed. On the larger scale, open-shelf surface temperatures have been obtained from satellite measurements (Reynolds and Smith, 1994). Seasonal temperature cycle Continuous temperature measurements from the Navaid Waverider buoy near Withnell Bay showed the following monthly mean, minimum and maximum temperatures at the site (WNI unpublished data the extremes of the annual cycle are bolded): Month Mean C Min C Max C January 29.9 27.5 32.4 February 30.4 27.8 33.1 March 30.1 28.5 32.4 April 28.6 25.5 30.5 May 25.9 23.4 29.6 June 23.9 20.4 27.7 July 22.6 20.7 25.0 August 22.3 20.8 25.1 September 24.2 22.5 26.4 October 25.5 23.5 28.2 November 26.6 24.5 30.0 December 28.3 25.8 31.7

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Figure 7 Monthly mean water temperatures from the Navaid site near Withnell Bay (dashed line with circles, data courtesy of WNI Science and Engineering (now WNI Oceanographers & Meteorologists) and Woodside Energy Ltd) and from the open shelf (Reynolds dataset, 20 to 21S and 116 to 117E, solid line with diamonds).

The annual temperature range was almost 8C, dropping from the peak of 30.4C in February to a trough of about 22.5C in July/August (Figure 7). For comparison, surface temperatures on the open continental shelf have been extracted from monthly satellite-derived sea surface temperatures (Reynolds and Smith, 1994), covering the 1degree latitude/longitude block off Dampier (116 to 117E, 20S to the coast it effectively extends midway across the continental shelf). The annual temperature range for these open shelf waters was from 24.0C in August up to 29.3C in March, i.e. about 5C, with the offshore cycle lagging the inshore pattern by about a month. This seasonally-reversing cross-shelf temperature gradient is graphically illustrated by thermal satellite imagery. During summer (upper image in Figure 8), the shallow coastal waters were warmer than those offshore because of a net input of heat from the sun and the atmosphere. The cool Ningaloo Current (Taylor and Pearce, 1999) was pushing northwards past Northwest Cape and Barrow Island, with just a hint that it may have skirted the northern Monte Bello Islands and then continued eastward towards the Dampier Archipelago. In winter, on the other hand, strong heat loss to the atmosphere and differential cooling occurred so that the nearshore waters were much cooler than the offshore region (Figure 8, lower). There was little evidence of a net alongshore drift, but the tongues of warmer water intruding towards the coast may indicate active cross-shelf mixing which would have important implications for the transport of planktonic larvae between inshore and offshore waters. Spatial and seasonal variability within the Dampier Archipelago can be assessed from the DCE 6-weekly surveys conducted in 1982/83. The time-series of measurements at the offshore end of transect AB (Figure 1) illustrates the seasonal changes in the vertical hydrological

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Figure 8 NOAA Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) sea surface temperature images of the Dampier region in (upper panel) January, representing summer and (lower panel) July 2000 for winter. The colour scales, ranging from red (warmest) to blue (coolest), have been selected specifically to reveal the thermal structure in most detail and so are different for each image. The black line marks the 200m isobath, which represents the edge of the continental shelf. Mottled white/blue bands at the top of the January image are clouds. Data courtesy of the Western Australian Satellite Technology and Applications Consortium (WASTAC).

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Figure 9 Seasonal variation of the near-surface (solid line) and near-bottom (dashed line) water properties of the inner continental shelf off the Dampier Archipelago in 1982/83 the station is at the outer end A of the transect shown in Figure 1. The upper panel shows the density (sigma-t), the centre panel the water temperature and the lower panel the salinity.

structure of the inner continental shelf. The water column was only weakly stratified from April until October 1982 (Figure 9), but between November 1982 and March 1983 the surface waters were warmer by up to 3C and more saline than the near-bottom waters. Surface temperature approached 29C in mid-summer (matching the Reynolds open-shelf temperatures in Figure 7), dropping to about 22C during the winter months. The seasonal salinity cycle was less clearly defined; surface salinities varied between 35.2 and 35.7 psu for most of the year, rising to 36.1 psu between December and February. As would be anticipated, the water density (sigma-t) was greatest in winter when the water was coldest. Cross-shelf hydrological structure There were also distinctive seasonal changes in the cross-shelf gradients along transect AB. Surface waters within Mermaid Sound at the coastal site B warmed and cooled more rapidly than those offshore (Figure 10). As discussed above, the inshore water was cooler than that offshore from April to mid-September and then warmer until mid-March 1983, with a temperature range some 4C greater than at the shelf station. Throughout the year, the surface salinity (and density) decreased from inshore to offshore, with summer salinities at the coastal

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Figure 10

Seasonal variation of the near-surface (3 m) water properties at three locations in the Dampier Archipelago in 1982/83. The solid line is for the offshore station (near A in Figure 1), the dashed line is for the innermost station (near B), and the dotted line mid-way along the transect. The upper panel shows the density (sigma-t), the centre panel the water temperature and the lower panel the salinity.

site B within the Sound rising to over 36.5 between November 1982 and April 1983 as a result of coastal evaporation. Mermaid Sound possesses a characteristic winter hydrographic regime, typified by the survey in June 1982 (Figure 11, left, from Forde, 1985). The structure shows denser (cooler and more saline) water formed within the Archipelago and wedging seaward beneath open-shelf water. Both the temperature and salinity gradients contributed positively to the observed inshore-offshore horizontal density difference. Horizontal and vertical gradients were strongest at the seaward edge of the Archipelago. Similar structures were found from the surveys of May, August and September 1982 with transitional structures occurring in the April and October 1982 surveys. Temperature/salinity diagrams from the winter surveys suggested downslope advection of near-bottom waters and vertical mixing across the pycnocline this vertical mixing appeared to intensify in areas of steeper slope and higher tidal velocity at the seaward edge of the Archipelago. The observed lower layer thickness was about 5 m with a vertical density change across the layer interface of about 0.3 kg/m3 for the June 1982 cruise at the segment of steepest bottom slope (Figure 11). This is consistent with a density current speed of order 0.1 m/s, assuming

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Figure 11

Vertical density/temperature/salinity structure along Transect AB (Figure 1) for (left panel) the winter survey in June and (right panel) the summer survey in December 1982, reproduced from Forde (1985).

near-critical flow, so density outflow of coastal water may be a significant flushing mechanism during winter. Transverse vertical sections suggest that the denser water tends to flow in the direction of the steepest slope and hence converges towards areas of greater depth to the northwest of Mermaid Sound. Other dissolved materials associated with waters of the inner Archipelago would be transported and mixed in a similar manner to heat and salt. In contrast to the winter situation, the summer hydrographic regime (illustrated by the December 1982 survey on the right of Figure 11) is characterised by vertical stratification on the open continental shelf and elevated salinity in the shallower coastal waters due to the localised effects of evaporation. Strong vertical gradients of temperature and salinity were found at the seaward end of the transect (water depth ~ 30 m) with warm saline water overlaying cooler less saline water from below the shelf thermocline. The outer zone of Mermaid Sound (depths ~2025 m) exhibited strong horizontal gradients of temperature and salinity with little vertical stratification; these gradients were opposed, however, in terms of their contribution to the resultant density gradients which were accordingly small.

WATER CIRCULATION IN THE DAMPIER ARCHIPELAGO There is a wealth of information (largely unpublished) on the circulation of the Dampier Archipelago and associated regional waters, including extensive current measurements offshore of the Archipelago for the oil industry. Analysis of current data across the continental shelf

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northwest of the Archipelago by Holloway and Nye (1985) and Holloway (1995) have shown a high degree of current variability associated with the semidiurnal tides and the Leeuwin Current. A series of current measurements undertaken by the DCE between September 1981 and July 1984 between the coast and the 40 m isobath (Figure 12) revealed the dominant current characteristics of the region (Mills et al. 1986) and were used by Mills (1985) to validate a numerical depth-averaged circulation model of the Archipelago waters. All these measurements have yielded some insight into the dynamics of the currents in the area. Phillips and Luettich (2001) have presented a detailed hydrodynamic model for the region. The major forces driving circulation in the Dampier Archipelago are large scale ocean circulation, tides, local winds (including tropical cyclones) and non-tidal long period waves (continental shelf waves and meteorological effects). Tides contribute most to the instantaneous water movement, giving rise to oscillatory but regular ebb and flood currents. The contributions from the other forces are seasonal, less regular in nature and generally weaker than the tidal flows, but their effects are nevertheless important as they generate a net residual drift that is responsible for transporting dissolved and particulate matter throughout the system. Once in motion, circulation is influenced by the local topography water is topographically steered between the islands and mainland and can become chaotically stirred and trapped by secondary circulations which are set up in the lees of islands and coastal headlands. Large-scale ocean circulation The Dampier Archipelago is influenced by the larger-scale ocean circulation on the NWS, which is in turn linked with major Southeast Indian Ocean and Indo-Pacific current regimes such as the throughflow of Pacific Ocean equatorial waters into the Timor Sea via the Indonesian Archipelago (Godfrey and Ridgway, 1985; Sherwood et al., 1999). This transport of warm, low-salinity water sets up a strong poleward sea level gradient along the Western Australian coastline which drives the Leeuwin Current (Cresswell and Golding, 1980; Godfrey and Ridgway, 1985). The Leeuwin Current tends to flow southwestwards along the outer continental shelf off the Archipelago and is strongest from February to July, with peak speeds of 25 to 30 cm/s (Holloway and Nye, 1985; Holloway, 1995), although periods of strong southwesterly winds can weaken or force short-term reversals of the current which are also associated with weak upwelling events on the outer shelf. These events tend to occur in summer when the Leeuwin Current is weak and most variable, and may provide some of the nitrate required for primary production on the NWS (Holloway et al., 1985). Recent observations using buoys and satellite altimeter estimates of the surface currents show that eddies and meanders are associated with these shelf processes (as seen, for example, in Figure 8), although their influence on the hydrodynamics of the Dampier Archipelago is yet to be clarified. It is likely that the Leeuwin Current has only a minor direct influence on the circulation within the islands of the Dampier Archipelago. The DCE studies indicated that it could distort the regular tidal current profile at the outer edge of the Archipelago with a significant residual drift of up to 20 cm/s towards the west (DAMS-27, Figure 12a). There may also have been some response at the seaward end of Mermaid Sound (DAMS-30) although the residual drift there was towards the south. Contemporaneous measurements much nearer the coast (DAMS-28, Figure 12a) showed smaller drifts, however, indicating that the waters inside the Archipelago were less exposed to the Leeuwin Current.

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Figure 12

Chart showing the current meter sites during the Department of Conservation and Environment studies for (a) summer (November to April) and (b) winter (May to October) this split is more to spread the observations over two diagrams and reduce overlap rather than to suggest any real seasonal differences. The lines depict the relative frequencies (%) of the dominant current directions at each site (derived from Mills et al., 1986), and the number next to each position is the DAMS site reference (see text). In cases where there would be interference between the frequency lines at adjacent sites, one site has been slightly offset to avoid the overlap. The current meter deployments were typically a few weeks.

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Tidal currents As described in Section 3, the tides in the Dampier Archipelago have a semidiurnal nature, giving rise to four current reversals per day, and there is a well-defined spring-neap lunar cycle resulting in considerable variation in the speed of the tidal currents over a 14-day period. Tidal currents are usually 90 out of phase with tide height, with maximum speeds occurring at midtide and slack water coinciding with high and low tides. The DCE current measurements showed that the tidally-reversing currents dominated the flow at all sites within the Archipelago, so the current directions were essentially bi-modal (Figure 12). The currents between the islands in both summer and winter tended to flow along the topography, as would be anticipated, but further offshore the tidal currents were generally directed onshore-offshore (also shown by Holloway, 1983). Sample time-series plots of typical offshore and nearshore current regimes (Figure 13) illustrate the dominant tidally-reversing current system. On occasion, current speeds at the offshore site (DAMS-27) reached 50 cm/s while currents of similar peak speeds were encountered in some of the inter-island water passages. Within a tidal cycle, the current speed could vary between almost zero and 40 cm/s over a period of 6 hours. Closer inshore (DAMS1, see Figure 12a), the currents were only about half the speed observed at the offshore site, with a small proportion of current speeds exceeding 20 cm/s. The current directions show the 180 tidal reversals, particularly at the coastal site. Further details of the DCE measurements are described in the original reports (Mills, 1985; Mills et al., 1986). Current vectors computed from a numerical model of the area (details in Phillips and Luettich, 2001) show more clearly the regional variability of the flow. At mid-flood on a spring tide, for example (Figure 14), tidally-driven waters generally flow in a southeasterly direction across the inner continental shelf towards the coast and are channelled through the islands and along Mermaid Sound and Mermaid Strait, converging near the Intercourse Islands off Dampier. The flow ebbs in the opposite direction with a comparable speed. The areas of strongest tidal currents are generally found towards the outer extremities of the Archipelago and occur when the water is falling or rising most rapidly. During spring tides, currents achieve speeds of around 40 50 cm/s through the seaward reaches of Mermaid Sound (matching the DCE current meter measurements) and about 30 40 cm/s in the channel between Eaglehawk and Enderby Islands (see Figure 1). Similar speeds are seen in the channel south of Rosemary Island. Channels connecting Mermaid Sound and Nickol Bay are subject to strong flows due to the difference in water levels between the two basins, with currents exceeding 2 m/s (about 4 knots) being observed between Angel and Dolphin Islands (Forde, 1985). Local wind forcing Due to the relative shallowness in the Archipelago, winds are an important driving force. Local winds firstly impart motion to the surface waters and then, after several hours, to the whole water column. Elevation or depression of water adjacent to coastlines gives rise to water surface slopes and pressure gradient forces, and (in conjunction with the applied wind stress and bottom friction stress) determines the wind-induced transport. The seasonal variation in wind over the Archipelago was described in Section 2 above. During winter (June to August), winds are dominantly from southerly to easterly directions (Figure 2), and the diurnal land/sea breeze reinforces the southerly to easterly winds in the morning and moderates them in the afternoon and the night. Easterly winds drive water westwards between the islands of the Archipelago. During summer on the other hand, winds

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Figure 13

Current speeds, directions and water temperatures from the DCE current meter deployments at (upper panel) offshore site DAMS-27 near the 40 m isobath northwest of Dampier, and (lower panel) site DAMS-1 close inshore west of Burrup Peninsula, reproduced from Mills et al. (1986). Note the difference in the speed scale on the y-axis. The two sites are shown in Figure 12.

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Figure 14

Simulated spring tide flood currents in the Dampier Archipelago derived from a numerical model. The inset shows the tidal cycle, and the arrow gives the current speed scale (courtesy of WNI Science and Engineering; now WNI Oceanographers & Meteorologists).

prevail from the west, driving water eastwards through Mermaid Strait and between Rosemary and Enderby Islands whilst water in Mermaid Sound is forced northwards towards the seaward entrance. As part of a marine conservation reserve planning process for the Department of Conservation and Land Management, numerical simulations were conducted in which particles were released at various locations in the Archipelago and tracked over a number of tidal cycles (Figure 15). Under the influence of tide and an autumnal wind forcing (winds varying between typical summer and winter conditions), these trajectories show a general drift towards the southwest throughout the Archipelago superimposed on the back-and-forth motion of the tide. Also evident is the enhanced drift during neap tides, which has been observed in measured currents (Mills et al., 1986) and is attributed to the relative weakness of the neap tidal currents (Forde, 1985). During these periods, the energy imparted by wind to water is more efficiently transformed into advective kinetic energy as the flow is less turbulent and energy dissipation by bottom friction occurs at a lesser rate. As a result, moderate to strong persistent winds are capable of distorting or completely nullifying the small neap tidal current, resulting in a large net excursion of water. Around the islands, the flow is complex with particles becoming trapped in secondary circulations this is particularly evident off Dampier and around Legendre Island. The particles

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Figure 15

Simulated tracks of particles released at various locations in the Archipelago over a 6-week period under the influence of tide and an autumnal wind regime (courtesy of the Department of Conservation and Land Management and WNI Science and Engineering; now WNI Oceanographers & Meteorologists).

released in Nickol Bay tend to remain there, suggesting that this may be a relatively enclosed system (at least under the wind forcing used in this particular simulation) although some exchange with Mermaid Sound water is likely to take place via the strong currents around Legendre and Dolphin Islands. Tropical cyclones Extreme winds from tropical cyclones can have a profound affect on the circulation, including the generation of continental shelf waves (CSW) along the coast which can lead to enhanced current speeds superimposed on the tidal currents in the Dampier region. Current meter records from moorings on the open continental shelf northwest of the Archipelago clearly showed the response of the currents (in the form of CSWs) to the enhanced alongshore wind stress during the passage of six tropical cyclones in the summers of 1981 and 1982 (Webster, 1985). Forde (1985) described the response to two tropical cyclones (Ian and Jane) which passed through the area during the DCE study. During TC Ian in March 1982, the winds were initially southerly in excess of 20 m/s before slowly swinging northerly and moderating to 7 m/s over a few days. Currents recorded 2 m above the seabed in the 18 m deep channel between Malus Island and West Lewis Island (site DAMS-4 in Figure 12b) flowed continuously to the west for 36 hours before turning east for the next 12 hours. Current speeds peaked at 40 cm/s (Webster,

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1985, Mills et al., 1986) generating a net excursion of about 18.2 km to the west. During TC Jane, winds were initially east-northeast at 10 m/s on 7th January 1983 before increasing to more than 20 m/s two days later. Currents recorded 4 m above the seabed in Mermaid Sound shipping channel (DAMS-3, Figure 12a) initially flowed south for 46 hours, followed by a 26 hour northerly reversal. Current speeds of about 35 cm/s were recorded, resulting in a net excursion of about 16.6 km. More recently, the passage of TC Connie (which crossed the coast to the south of Port Hedland in January 1997) resulted in a positive storm surge of 2 m at Port Hedland, generating a continental shelf wave that propagated southwestwards along the coast towards the Archipelago. Measured currents near Withnell Bay indicated a northward flow for about 18 hours, double-peaking at around 40 cm/s (Figure 9.2 in Steedman, 1988) the tidal contribution at this time was around 20 cm/s, so the CSW augmented the ebb current towards the north but suppressed the flood current towards the south, accounting for the double peak. It should be noted that tropical cyclones are not the only source of CSWs (Provis and Radok, 1979). Current meter records from Mermaid Sound reveal that these events occur typically once or twice per month throughout the year, bringing strong current surges of a few days duration; tidal flows in one direction are often doubled while the reversals are suppressed (WNI unpublished data).

WATER QUALITY The outer waters of the Archipelago show typical oceanic variations in water quality characteristics such as water temperature and salinity (Section 5), turbidity and oxygen. Within the Archipelago, relatively restricted flushing can lead to variations outside normal oceanic ranges in water quality. For example, turbidity can be up to an order of magnitude greater nearshore compared with offshore (Simpson, 1988), and throughout the year there may be pronounced cross-shelf gradients in turbidity levels through the Archipelago (Forde, 1985). Mud is transported into the marine environment by fluvial processes, or is eroded from older sedimentary deposits, or is biogenically generated (Semeniuk et al., 1982). Wind-driven waves are primarily responsible for resuspending sediment in the nearshore areas while offshore sediment resuspension is mainly caused by oceanic swells. Many coral species can tolerate sediment deposition rates of up to about 50 g/m2/day but periodically these rates may be exceeded by natural processes throughout the Archipelago during the year (Simpson, 1988). Gilmour (2001a) found that coral communities within the inner-Archipelago are periodically exposed to higher levels of acute sediment deposition, following resuspension due to tides and storm activity. For example, during both 1998 and 2000, mean sediment deposition at innerreefs ranged from 81 to 201 g/m 2/day, due to the high frequency of storm and cyclone disturbance (Gilmour, 2001a). Periods of acute sediment deposition are likely to reduce coral survival, even for species that are resistant to sedimentation (e.g. Gilmour, 2001b). In addition to elevating levels of sediment deposition, severe storm and cyclone activity can cause concomitant physical damage to benthic communities and accumulations of calcareous rubble and sands in Mermaid Sound. Dampier Archipelago Marine Study Data from the Dampier Archipelago Marine Study of the mid 1980s showed that the waters of the Archipelago are oligotrophic. Phytoplankton throughout the Archipelago are present in

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generally low densities for much of the year (Semeniuk et al., 1982), except perhaps on occasions during spring/summer when plankton blooms contribute locally to turbidity; there are also periodic occurrences of red-tide producing dinoflagellate blooms of Trichodesmium. High spatial and seasonal variability were evident in nutrient and chlorophyll-a concentrations from a series of four surveys undertaken by DCE between October 1980 to September 1981. Surface, mid-depth and near-bottom samples were taken at 11 stations from King Bay out to the 30m contour, and the samples have been combined here into depth-averaged values. Although the surveys were undertaken during neap tides, each transect took more than 6 hours to complete and therefore extended across a large proportion of a tidal phase. Because of the significant water movements that can take place over a tidal period (Section 6) and the low number of samples, interpretation of these results must be viewed with some caution. Concentrations in inorganic nutrients were generally low (as found by Rochford, 1980) and there was considerable variation in concentrations for all three sampled nutrients at the very shallow inshore sites. Inshore to offshore gradients were evident in some months but there was no consistent seasonal or cross-shelf pattern across all nutrients. The orthophosphate concentrations (PO4P) in June and September 1981 were about twice those in October 1980 and March 1981 (Figure 16a), but the latter two transects showed a marked increase from inshore to offshore; the peak concentration (over 0.4 M/l) was at the 8 km station in June. Concentrations of NH4N were generally between 0.4 and 0.7 M/l (Figure 16b), except for a rise near the coast in all seasons and an increase at the outer transect stations in June and September. High nitrate (NO 3N) levels were observed out to 10 km offshore in March 1981 but otherwise the concentrations were mainly below 0.2 M/l with a slight increase at the coast (Figure 16c). Apart from elevated levels close inshore (Figure 16d), N:P ratios were generally low throughout and well below the Redfield ratio of 16:1, indicating that under nutrient-limiting conditions nitrogen availability would be the most limiting to phytoplankton growth. In October and March the N:P ratio greatly exceeded the Redfield ratio at many of the inshore sites, this being a result of increases in either ammonium or nitrate nitrogen (or both). These values suggest that phosphorus rather than nitrogen would be the limiting nutrient, which is unusual for marine systems, but it is possible that at this time light rather than nutrients was limiting to phytoplankton growth. With the exception of June 1981, chlorophyll-a levels beyond 10 km from the coast (Figure 17a) were below 0.3 mg/m3, matching the low concentrations measured during the International Indian Ocean Expedition of the early 1960s (Krey and Babenerd, 1976). The highest chlorophylls were in winter (June 1981) as reported by Pearce et al. (2000) for elsewhere along the Western Australian coast, but the concentration also exceeded 1 mg/m3 near the coast in March 1981. Light attenuation was always low (about 0.05 E/m) outside the Archipelago, but rose to at least double this value near the coast and exceeded 0.3 E/m close inshore in June and September (Figure 17b). Large changes in water clarity over short periods of time (in the order of hours) were observed during the surveys, probably indicative of the rapid tidal water movements through the Archipelago and perhaps explaining the highly variable conditions near the coast in June and September 1981. Satellite remote sensing The recent availability of satellite-derived chlorophyll images of Western Australian coastal waters is beginning to provide greater detail on the seasonal distribution of phytoplankton in the

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b
Figure 16 Cross-shelf transects from close inshore (King Bay, stations 1 and 4; near position B in Figure 1) extending up Mermaid Sound out to the 30 m isobath (station 15; near position A in Figure 1), from Chiffings (1982): (a) PO4P, (b) NH4N, (c) NO3N and (d) the N:P ratio. At each station, depth-averages of (usually) three observations have been used.

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b
Figure 17 Cross-shelf transects (matching Figure 16) for (a) chlorophyll-a, and (b) light attenuation (units E/m). At each station, depth-averages of (usually) three observations have been used.

region although there are some shallow-water limitations. Some indication of the potential of remotely-sensed information can be gained from summer and winter images obtained from the SeaWiFS sensor. An image for summer (Figure 18a) shows that there was a distinct nearshore

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Figure 18

SeaWiFS chlorophyll images for the Dampier Archipelago in (upper panel) February 2000, representing summer conditions, and (lower panel) June 2000 for winter. The images were prepared by the Remote Sensing and Satellite Research Group (Curtin University), courtesy of Orbital Sciences Corporation and WASTAC. The logarithmic chlorophyll scale is on the right of each image: the highest chlorophyll concentrations are in yellow/red and the lowest in green/blue.

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band of relatively high chlorophyll with no coherent offshore structure it must be cautioned, however, that there may have been some non-chlorophyll-related influences such as suspended sediment near the coast as well as bottom reflectance in waters less than 30 m depth, possibly misrepresenting the true nearshore chlorophyll concentration. The highest apparent concentrations close inshore (shown in yellow, representing chlorophyll levels approaching 10 mg/m3) may not be valid, and further research into appropriate algorithms for deriving shallowwater chlorophylls is required. The band of elevated coastal chlorophylls was appreciably narrower in the winter image (Figure 18b) but there was a coast-parallel series of high chlorophyll patches approximately 100 km offshore these were apparent in images on adjacent days as well and graphically illustrate the high degree of spatial variability in the phytoplankton distribution. Insufficient images have as yet been processed to assess how frequently such complex patterns may occur or to explain their formation and structure; possible mechanisms could include dinoflagellate blooms and upwelling due to shoaling internal waves and internal tides. Improvement in monitoring coastal waters such as those of the Dampier Archipelago will come from locally tuned algorithms, based on a knowledge of specific optical conditions of the water column, to produce more accurate estimates of constituent concentrations in the water. The applicability of SeaWiFS is also limited to some degree by the small number of spectral bands as well as by the 1 km2 pixel size: when bathymetry and/or substrate reflectance is variable over scales of less than 1 km, higher spatial resolution sensors may provide better estimates of water column properties and possibly also characteristics of the substrate. The MODIS sensors onboard the more recent Terra and Aqua satellites can provide near-daily views of the earth using 36 spectral channels, including 10 visible channels at spatial resolution ranging from 250 m to 1 km, while the MERIS instrument onboard the Envisat satellite (launched in March 2002) can also provide data of promise to remote sensing of coastal waters. The Hyperion on board the Earth Observing-1 satellite provides hundreds of spectral channels with 30 m resolution. The trade-off for higher spatial resolution is a lower temporal frequency for viewing. Aircraft-borne hyperspectral sensors such as the Compact Airborne Spectrographic Imager (CASI) can provide spatial resolution from sub-meter to 10 m. ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS: 25 JULY TO 11 AUGUST 2000 Longer-term context There is a close relationship between monthly coastal sea levels, inner shelf SSTs (Reynolds dataset, see Section 5) and El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events as indicated by the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) (Figure 19). Over the past decade, ENSO periods (indicated by negative SOI) were associated with generally lower ocean temperatures and lower sea levels (which have been interpreted by Pearce and Phillips (1994) and Pearce (1997) as a weaker Leeuwin Current). Conversely, during La Nina periods when the SOI was high, sea levels were relatively high, the water warmer and the Leeuwin Current presumably stronger. ENSO events clearly have an important influence on interannual variability in the Archipelago. In the context of these longer-term environmental conditions, the AMSA Workshop was held during the prolonged La Nina event commencing in the late 1990s. Although coastal sea levels were at an almost record peak (Figure 19b), implying a very strong Leeuwin Current, the inner shelf water temperature was in fact almost 1C below the longterm average for July 2000 (Figure 19a) the reason for this is not known.

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Figure 19

Monthly (a) sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies of the Dampier region (filled circles) and (b) sea level anomalies at King Bay (filled circles) compared with the monthly Southern Oscillation Index (SOI open diamonds) over the period 1990 to 2000. The SST anomalies have been derived from the Reynolds dataset for the area 20 to 21S, 116 to 117E by subtracting the monthly SSTs from the longterm monthly means, and have been smoothed by a 5-month running mean. The SOI values (from the Darwin Tropical Diagnostic Statement) and Dampier sea level anomalies (from the National Tidal Facility) have been similarly smoothed. El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events are marked by the solid horizontal bars.

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Figure 20

Hourly measurements of (a) sea level, (b) water temperature, (c) wind speed (10-minute means, filled circles; 3-second gusts, open circles), and (d) air temperature over the period of the AMSA Workshop in July/August 2000. The sea level measurements were in King Bay (courtesy WA Department of Transport), the water temperatures from a buoy off Withnell Bay (courtesy of WNI Science and Engineering (now WNI Oceanographers & Meteorologists) and Woodside Energy Ltd), and the meteorological data were from a site on Burrup Peninsula near Withnell Bay (courtesy of WNI Science and Engineering (now WNI Oceanographers & Meteorologists) and Woodside Energy Ltd). The vertical lines are at 12-hourly intervals.

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AMSA Workshop Over the 2-week period of the Workshop, the tidal regime at King Bay went through a complete neap-spring-neap cycle (Figure 20a), with a peak tidal range of about 4 m early in August and (assumed) correspondingly strong tidal currents in the Archipelago. No current measurements are available over this period, but because the water movements are dominated by tide, the modelled and historically observed currents (Section 6, see also Mills et al. 1986) may give a fair indication of the likely current patterns at the time. Sea temperatures near Withnell Bay in Mermaid Sound were initially relatively high (Figure 20b), exceeding 23C on 25th July, but dropped rapidly to oscillate between 21 and 22C for most of the Workshop period. The diurnal temperature cycle was apparent on most days, with the water being coolest around 8am and warmest mid-afternoon; the diurnal temperature range was usually about 0.5C but on at least 3 days temperature rises of almost 1 degree were recorded. By the end of the Workshop, the temperature had fallen to 20.5C. These temperature changes were most likely due to air-sea heat flux, possibly with some influence of cross-shelf advection/mixing events. The synoptic pressure weather charts (not reproduced here) showed a large high-pressure cell in the southwest of the State at the start of the Workshop, resulting in strong east to southeast winds at Dampier. Winds gusted to 20 m/s (40 knots) on 26th and 27th July (Figure 20c) then moderated to a calm period of a few days with 5 m/s breezes from the north as the High moved eastwards. This pattern was repeated in early August as new Highs developed in the south, with mean wind speeds of about 10 m/s gusting to 15 m/s (30 knots) most mornings. Air temperatures fluctuated between about 17C in the mornings to 25 or 27C by mid-afternoon with a pronounced diurnal pattern (Figure 20d). The coolest days were towards the end of July and coincided with the sharp fall in sea temperature (Figure 20b).

SUMMARY AND ECOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE Some of the environmental characteristics of the Dampier Archipelago have a profound influence on the ecology of the area. These include the relatively high water temperatures and tidal ranges (compared with conditions south of Exmouth Gulf) and the seasonal (albeit irregular) occurrence of tropical cyclones. Water temperatures greater than 30C in conjunction with high light intensities are known to cause stress to corals, and this stress can manifest itself through the expulsion of the zooxanthellae from the coral polyp, sometimes resulting in mortality (Hoegh-Guldberg, 1999). The expulsion of the zooxanthellae can be detected by a whitening of the coral tissue (coral bleaching), which has been observed as recently as April 1998 in the Dampier Archipelago, particularly for a variety of hard corals, soft corals, anemones and zoanthids in nearshore communities (Andrew Heyward, pers. comm and James Gilmour, pers. comm.). Low water temperatures (under 20C), on the other hand, have also been found to cause bleaching of corals in the inner part of Mermaid Sound (Chris Simpson, pers. comm.). The stress on corals from factors other than high temperature such as increased photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), ultra-violet radiation, sediment, physical disturbance or predation can superpose to aggravate the effect of extreme temperature. Of particular relevance to the Dampier Archipelago is the combination of bleaching and sedimentation, as bleached corals are unable to utilise mechanisms of sediment rejection such as ciliary and tentacular activity, and mucous production.

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The 4 to 5 m spring tides at Dampier, while much lower than those further northeast at Broome, are nevertheless 5 times greater than the tides south of Exmouth. The gently-sloping seabed in much of the coastal region results in large expanses of sand and rock which are alternately exposed and inundated twice-daily, influencing the distribution and survival of the benthic biota in the intertidal and shallow subtidal zones. In extreme conditions, temperature (both high and low) and heavy rainfall events can result in thermal or haline stress to the marine organisms inhabiting these regions, although it should be noted that low tides do not occur during the middle of the day in summer. Tropical cyclones probably provide the most energetic events on the NWS, with the potential to devastate coastal structures and communities. The destructive winds associated with cyclones are generally accompanied by heavy rains, large coastal sea level surges and high waves. Waveinduced turbulence can lead to substantial movements in coastal sediments, which can then smother marine organisms and important benthic habitats. The large waves can also directly dislodge and damage corals and other benthic communities, while the integrity of coastal infrastructure can be threatened by the combined destructive effects of violent winds and associated waves (Forde, 1985; Massel and Done, 1993; Sherwood et al., 1999). The issue of upwelling (and consequently nutrient supply to the Archipelago) is still a matter of debate, first addressed by Schott (1933) who suggested that there may be some upwelling along the NWS in autumn but not in summer. It is clear that there is no large-scale, seasonallypersistent upwelling of nutrient-rich water off Western Australia as occurs in the Benguela Current system off southwestern Africa and the Humboldt Current off the west coast of South America (Pearce 1991). Rochford (1977) examined the available information on biological enrichment on the NWS and concluded that there was no clear evidence for upwelling. Nevertheless, episodical penetration of nutrient-rich water onto the outer shelf, whatever the mechanism, clearly contributes to the local phytoplankton production (Tranter and Leech, 1987). As mentioned earlier, current measurements on the open shelf (Holloway et al., 1985; Holloway, 1994) have suggested that wind-induced upwelling processes (on a range of temporal and spatial scales) may operate along the outer shelf during the summer months but may not necessarily result in nutrient enrichment there, and the extent to which these processes may influence the near-coastal waters is presently unknown.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS SeaWiFS (courtesy of the Orbital Sciences Corporation) and AVHRR satellite imagery were provided by the Western Australian Satellite Technology and Applications Consortium (WASTAC). Andrew Heyward (Australian Institute of Marine Science) and James Gilmour (University of Western Australia, Zoology Department) provided timely information on the corals at Dampier. Sea levels for Dampier were supplied by the National Tidal Facility, The Flinders University of South Australia, Copyright reserved, courtesy of Paul Davill. Oceanographic and meteorological data (both historical and for the period of the Workshop) were provided by WNI Oceanographers & Meteorologists (Steve Buchan) on behalf of Woodside Energy Ltd, while the Western Australian Department of Transport (Tony Lamberto) supplied tidal data for the Dampier Workshop. Kevin Smith (Bureau of Meteorology) extracted information about tropical cyclones in the Dampier region. Circulation and particle track simulations presented in this paper were conducted for the Department of Conservation and Land Management by WNI

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Oceanographers & Meteorologists. Ms Muriel Salpetier (Waters and Rivers Commission) supplied information on the Fortescue river flows.

LITERATURE CITED
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