Lack of evidence for evaporation-driven circulation in the Great Barrier Reef lagoon

Abstract

The occurrence of an evaporation-driven circulation in the Great Barrier Reef lagoon has recently been proposed. When the data on which the proposal is based are examined, together with further oceanographic and meteorological records for the same time period, it can be shown that the observed salinity structure resulted from advection of runoff-diluted water from the north. It is concluded that there is currently no evidence to support the existence of evaporation-driven circulation, and the probability of occurrence of such a process is low.