Research Article 2014 WRR Burdekin sediment budget

Water Resources Research 10.1002/2013WR014386 discharge years also requires further investigation. While our study and Bainbridge et al.’s [2012] Burdekin ﬂood plume research show a clear partitioning of sediment fractions through the BFD and into the marine environment, there is still a need to delineate the marine areas of most risk to the increased sediment loads delivered from the Burdekin River [Bartley et al., 2014]. For example, coral reefs that have developed and thrived in naturally turbid areas such as Paluma Shoals and Middle Reef [Browne et al., 2013; Perry et al., 2012] are unlikely to be as adversely affected by increased sediment loadings as clear water reefs, such as off Pelorus Island where elevated sediment inputs and associated increased turbidity are argued to have negatively affected coral reefs [Roff et al., 2013]. Acknowledgments Funding for this research was supported by (1) North Queensland Dry Tropics, (2) the Australian Government’s Marine and Tropical Sciences Research Facility, implemented in North Queensland by the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre Ltd and (3) JCU/CSIRO Tropical Landscapes Joint Venture/School of Earth and Environmental Sciences PhD Scholarship awarded to Z.T.B. We gratefully acknowledge the grazier volunteer network for their dedicated sampling efforts, Tony Bailey and Gary Caddies (SunWater) for collecting the BFD samples and the Queensland Department of Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts GBR Loads Monitoring Program for providing additional data, as well as Scott Wilkinson, CSIRO for Myuna site TSS data. Appreciation is given to the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines Ayr hydrographic unit and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology for access to streamﬂow and rainfall gauging station data. We are grateful to Raphael W€ ust (School of Earth and Environmental Sciences (SEES), JCU) for performing the particle-size analysis, the TropWATER laboratory staff for TSS analysis, and Adella Edwards (SEES, JCU) for assistance with the production of Figures 2–4. MS data are available upon request from the corresponding author. We are grateful to Peter Hairsine and Rebecca Bartley (CSIRO) for providing comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript. The manuscript beneﬁted from the constructive comments of the Associate Editor, Basil Gomez, Murray Hicks, and two anonymous reviewers. BAINBRIDGE ET AL. References Amos, K. J., J. Alexander, A. Horn, G. D. Pocock, and C. R. Fielding (2004), Supply limited sediment transport in a high-discharge event of the tropical Burdekin River, North Queensland, Australia, Sedimentology, 51, 145–162. American Public Health Association (2005), Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewaters, 21st ed., Am. 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