Jon Brodie
Water Quality Scientist
Email: jon.brodie@jcu.edu.au
Phone: 07 4781 6435
Location: DB019 107b
Jon Brodie is a Principal Research Officer specialising in water quality. Jon's training was in environmental chemistry with original research while at James Cook University in the 1970s examining agricultural chemical residues in groundwaters of the Burdekin River delta.
He spent some years as a lecturer in chemistry at Queensland University of Technology (Kelvin Grove, Brisbane) and the University of the South Pacific (Suva, Fiji) and as an analytical chemist with the CRA Metallurgical Research Section (Newcastle). For the last 20 years his interests have been in environmental research and consultancy and the management of marine and freshwater pollution. He spent ten years as an environmental researcher/consultant with the University of the South Pacific (Fiji and other Pacific island states) and the ACTFR. For 11 years he managed the Water Quality Research and Management Program of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. He has also been recently involved in a number of environmental projects overseas in the Middle East (Yemen) and the Pacific islands (American Samoa, Samoa, Kiribati and PNG).
Jon's research interests are in the sources of pollutants in catchments; transport of pollutants to the marine environment; the dispersal of land-based pollutants in coastal and marine environments; and the effects of terrestrial pollutants on marine ecosystems. He is particularly interested in the following research areas:
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water quality in tropical coastal marine environment
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the effects of sediments and nutrients on coral reef and seagrass bed ecosystems
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catchment sources of sediment and nutrient discharge to coastal environments
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land use practices which lead to enhanced rates of sediment and nutrient discharge to coastal environments
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river plume dynamics and biological, physical and chemical processes occurring in river plumes, and
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temporal and spatial dynamics of water quality on the Great Barrier Reef; water quality management systems in coral reef environments.
Current projects include:
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Water quality status of catchments in the Mackay Whitsunday Region
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Target setting for suspended sediment, nitrogen and phosphorus loads from the Great Barrier Reef Catchment Area to the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area
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Water quality and ecosystem health of Southeast Gulf of Carpentaria waterways
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Identifying source areas of sediments and nutrients on the Great Barrier Reef Catchment using catchment modelling
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Understanding the dynamics and distribution of river plume waters in the Great Barrier Reef
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Understanding the composition of water discharging from different land uses on the Great Barrier Reef Catchment
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Reviewing information linking crown of thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci) outbreaks to terrestrial discharge of nutrients
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Establishing community based water quality monitoring programs in the Burdekin catchment, Mackay Whitsunday region and the Wet Tropics region
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Task leader for Task 1: Riparian zone performance: tools and protocols for assessment, monitoring and development of guidelines for riparian zones for the Rainforest/Reef CRC joint Catchment to Reef Program.
