Sensory buoys deployed! In late November, the Moreton Bay Research Station team, with support from members of the Faculty of
Science Workshops, Marine Parks’ ‘Spoonbill’ vessel and crew, and QYAC rangers, installed the first two oceanographic sensory buoys at locations in Moreton Bay on the Eastern Banks and a site close to Macleay Island.
This project will establish a core backbone infrastructure of water quality and environment sensors in Moreton Bay, and on and around Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island). They will provide real-time data acquisition applicable in research and teaching across a broad range of disciplines.
In 2024, the team aims to deploy an additional two buoys, and 10 smaller water quality monitoring buoys located in inshore marine locations and in water bodies (perched lakes and springs) on Minjerribah that represent keystone sites from cultural significance, research, teaching and other stakeholder standpoints.
Each buoy is collecting water quality data that is being transmit it to the internet every 15 minutes, capturing water turbidity, conductivity, depth, temperature, and PAR light. In addition, the large buoys will provide a permanent platform for researchers to mount their own temporary or permanent sampling equipment.
The data being transmitted from the sensory buoys can be seen using the public platform here: https://public.eagle.io/public/dash/rk6q7kqhw4dhw23.
This project was originally started by Ron Johnstone and Clint Chapman, and the project was originally funded from a UQ Research Facilities Infrastructure Grant.
We would like to thank the following people for help on the day:
- MBRS Team: Kevin Townsend, Simon Bobeldyk, Martin Wynne, Karen Cheney
- FoS Workshops Team: Tom Mason, Josh Wicks, Evan Foster,
- Marine Parks ‘Spoonbill’ crew: Craig Boxer and Andrew Lowe
- QYAC rangers
We also thank Helen Bostock Lyman for continuing support.
Please email MBRS Academic Director, Associate Professor Karen Cheney k.cheney@uq.edu.au, if you are interested in using the data from the buoys for any research projects, or would like to discuss adding instrumentation to the network.
