Recent datasets

This dataset contains the extent of the coastal zone for the Great Barrier Reef. This extent was identified as the most suitable area to be investigated on land and at sea as part of a conservation planning project looking at coastal development along the GBR coast.

This dataset contains the estimated distribution and abundance of cassowaries across the Wet Tropics Region and the sub-regions used in these estimates. The key areas for cassowary conservation are those with the highest densities and abundance. This data is based on field surveys and data on cassowary density derived from faecal-DNA analysis of dung samples collected during those surveys. Methods: Surveys were conducted along 157 transects distributed across the Wet Tropics Region during 2012 - 2014.

This dataset shows the point location of communities on Torres Strait Islands. There are 18 Islands in the Torres Strait and 19 Communities. St Pauls and Kubin villages are both located on Moa Island. Each point includes an URL attribute pointing to the community pages on the TSRA website.

This dataset is a composite of Landsat 5 satellite imagery to produce a cloud free, clear water seamless image of the Torres Strait region. This image includes some of Cape York and PNG, in particular the Fly river. This composite shows clear imagery for marine areas, in particular reefs, larger islands and sand bars. This image has a resolution of approximately 30 m and a positional accuracy of better than 50 m. There is a new similar dataset based on higher resolution Sentinel 2 imagery: Lawrey, E. (2022).

This dataset shows the extent of the dugong sanctuary in the Torres Strait which prohibits the taking of dugong (area, gear and method restrictions). The dugong sanctuary is a legislative boundary which is outlined in the Torres Strait Fisheries Management Notice No. 65 http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Det...007B00345 . This dataset is for research purposes and is not authoritative. Refer to the legislation for the authoritative definition of the sanctuary.

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This dataset shows the measured response of the photosystems of seagrasses to herbicides in experiments conducted in 2014. The purpose of the experiments were to develop and validate a miniature toxicity assay using isolated seagrass leaves in 12-well plate. The aim of this study was to quantify the acute phytotoxicity of PSII herbicide, Diuron, on the seagrass Halophila ovalis while validating a 12-well plate fluorescence bioassay using the imaging pulse amplitude modulation fluorometry.

This dataset shows the spatial distribution of the number of visitors to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park based on visitation rates collected from the Environmental Management Charge (EMC) managed by GBRMPA. The spatial information has been quantised into a 0.1 degree grid size. This data only represents visitors to the Great Barrier Reef who used commercial tourist operations. Data is collected and updated quarterly following receipt of Environmental Management Charge returns from tourism operators. This dataset is a set of annual snapshots of this monthly data.

This dataset contains Active Licenses, Effort days, Harvest Weight and GVP for the Queensland commercial harvest, line, net, pot and trawl fisheries. The data is provided on a 30 min grid for locations where there are more than 5 licensed operators. Commercial fishers and charter fishers are required by law to complete daily logbooks. Commercial fishing logbooks are used to record: overall catch, time spent fishing, location where catch was taken and fishing equipment used. This data is then managed by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF).

This dataset demonstrates the suitability of microsatellite markers to discriminate between species of coral trout (Plectropomus spp.) and identify parent-offspring relationships in natural populations. A total of 285 adult P. leopardus collected from the Capricorn Bunkers and 285 adult P. maculatus from the Keppel islands were genotyped at 25 microsatellite loci. Each locus was also tested on 7 additional species within the genus. The multiplex PCRs developed here provide a reliable and cost-effective strategy to investigate the evolutionary and ecological dynamics of coral trout.

This dataset consists of rasters representing downscaled climate change scenarios (8 km resolution) for the Torres Strait and Papua New Guinea regions for 1990, 2055, 2090. This includes estimated mean surface relative humidity (%), wind speed, rainfall rate (mm per day) and surface temperature (degrees Celsius) estimated from simulated conditions for 1980?1999, 2046-2065 and 2080?2099 time periods. Also included is the relative change of each attribute with respect to 1990.

The data consists of ten minute readings of above water meteorological parameters (wind speed, wind direction, barometric pressure, air temperature and humidity) from a Vaisala WTX520 instrument, above water light as Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) from a Li-COR Li-192 sensor and below water parameters including Salinity using a Sea-Bird SBE37 CTD and temperature via a Sea-Bird SBE39 temperature sensor. Data are from two sites, one at Madge Reef near Thursday Island (-10.595125° | 142.220572°) and one at Masig (Yorke) Island (-9.758293° | 143.397584°).

This dataset consists of site means of the density of derelict fishing line, the percent cover of major benthic categories on fringing coral reefs of the Keppel, Whitsunday and Palm Island groups, and the accumulation rate of fishing line at ten sites in the Palm Islands between 2007 and 2009. Monofilament nylon fishing line is persistent in the marine environment and once entangled in the reef, it can remain in place for many years. Temporal monitoring of the relative number of fishing lines recorded at each site can be used as a proxy for fishing effort.

This dataset shows a raster spatial model of the distribution and relative density of dugongs (Dugong dugong) in the northern Great Barrier Reef region based on an aggregate of 24 years (1990 - 2013) of systematic aerial surveys. Methods: Aerial surveys were conducted using the strip transect method described by Marsh and Sinclair (1989). The survey region was divided into blocks containing systematic transects of varying length, which were typically perpendicular to the coast across the depth gradient.

This dataset consists of 546 records of vertebrate species across various sites in the rainforests and adjacent habitats of the Wet Tropics and the Eungella region. Surveys particularly targeted threatened frogs and focussed on ecotonal and peripheral rainforest areas. Each record consists of the date, species, locality name, latitude and longitude, habitat, and observer. This is all original data, collected in the field by the listed observers. Surveys particularly targeted threatened frogs but other vertebrates recorded at that site are also included.

This dataset contains the catch data from seasonal gillnet and longline surveys of shark nursery areas in the Central Section of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (2011-2014). Methods: Sampling occurred seasonally in nine bays along ~ 400 km of the tropical north Queensland coastline: Rockingham, Halifax, Cleveland, Bowling Green, Upstart, Abbott, Edgecumbe, Woodwark/Double and Repulse Bays. Of these nine bays, five were sampled regularly, the others (in italics) were sampled only once as part of a broader survey.

This dataset consists of site and zone means of the percent cover of major benthic categories and the density of fish functional groups on fringing coral reefs of the Keppel, Whitsunday and Palm Island groups, as a result of monitoring surveys carried out between 1999 and 2014. This data extract summarises the results of a long-term monitoring project that assesses the effects of no-take marine reserve zoning in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Spatial zoning for multiple-use is the cornerstone of management for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP).

Geoscience Australias GEOMACS model was used to produce hindcast hourly time series of continental shelf (~20 to 300 m depth) bed shear stress (unit of measure: Pascal, Pa) on a 0.1 degree grid covering the period March 1997 to February 2008 (inclusive). The hindcast data represents the combined contribution to the bed shear stress by waves, tides, wind and density-driven circulation. The trimmed mean is simply the arithmetic mean calculated excluding a percentage of the highest and lowest values in the distribution.

The eAtlas delivers its NetCDF (Network Common Data Form) data file using a THREDDS Data Server (TDS), which provides metadata and data access using OPeNDAP, OGC WMS and WCS, HTTP, and other remote data access protocols. The services delivers data, matadata and map layers associated with the eAtlas project (https://eatlas.org.au). The data focus on environmental research on the Great Barrier Reef and its neighbouring coast, the Wet Tropics rainforests and Torres Strait.

This dataset is derived from the Australia's River Basins 1997 (GA) dataset. It shows the 12 drainage divisions. Primary credit should be given to Geoscience Australia. This dataset was created by using ArcMap to dissolve polygons from the Australia's River Basins 1997 shapefile based on the DNAME attribute.

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This dataset shows (1) a raster spatial model of the distribution and relative density of dugongs (Dugong dugong) in the Torres Strait region based on an aggregate of 27 years (1987 - 2013) of systematic aerial surveys; and (2) a raster spatial model of the distribution and relative density of marine turtles (green turtles, Chelonia mydas) in the Torres Strait based on an aerial survey conducted in 2013. Aerial surveys were conducted using the strip transect method described by Marsh and Sinclair (1989).