Update on Australia's National Reference Stations

The scope of Australia's National Reference Stations has been progressively expanded with funding from the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS). From the original three sites around the Australian coastline a further six sites have now been established and instrumented. Besides the deployment of sensors there has been an expansion of the original once- monthly water sampling at each site for the measurement of further parameters, both physical and biological. The deployment of the initial infrastructure and sampling is nearing completion. Additional sensors to study remotely sensed ocean color products, ocean acidification and backscatter proxies for zooplankton have recently been funded. With these new sensors the scientific rationale of the NRS has changed emphasis, with the sites been primarily seen as providing biological oceanography data streams while having a support function for measurements of boundary currents and cross shelf processes.