Recent datasets

This project focuses on improving methods to detect the introduction of exotic animal diseases into the Torres Strait. The researchers will examine the environmental factors that influence the establishment and persistence of wildlife diseases in the region. They will study insect disease vectors and the incidence of disease in birds in a range of habitats in order to identify where disease risk is greatest. Field studies will be conducted using replicated mosquito trapping and mist netting of birds in Torres Strait, at sites identified from previous projects. Outcomes include: 1.

Sharks play an important role in marine ecosystems but are facing increasing pressure from fishing and other anthropogenic factors. Along the Queensland coast inshore waters play an important role as nursery areas for sharks. However, the same inshore waters are also most prone to fisheries exploitation and effects of freshwater discharge from coastal streams and rivers. This project will examine the importance of different types of inshore habitat (protected bay vs.

This project will investigate how coral communities along the Great Barrier Reef have historically responded to acute (e.g. cyclones) and chronic (e.g. water quality) disturbances using pioneering high-precision geological dating and palaeoecological techniques, combined with high-resolution geochemical analysis of coral records. This project will determine high resolution chronological records on different time scales over the past 1-2 millennia of parameters such as: 1. Sea-level based on high-precision dating and elevation survey of well-preserved microatolls; 2.

The program aims to identify key foraging locations and biophysical characteristics for shearwaters and boobies in the GBR and Coral Sea, assess prey availability and its climate-driven variations, and understand the conditions necessary for viable reproduction and potential anthropogenic interactions. Overall the key objectives of this program are to: 1.

This project will conduct a biodiversity assessment of coral communities on Torres Strait reefs to establish a baseline of coral condition and start a longer-term monitoring program of selected coral reefs in the region. The monitoring will look for changes in the condition of coral reefs and document factors that might contribute to changes incl COTS, disease, bleaching, temperature anomalies etc. As part of this project, an early warning system will be established for coral bleaching.

The Reef Rescue Marine Monitoring Program (RRMMP) has identified that seagrass meadows along the Great Barrier Reef are in a state of decline. This project will undertake desktop analyses to quantify the exposure of seagrass meadows to flood plumes. Aquaria experiments will measure responses of seagrass to variation in light, nutrients and salinity. This project will also use use True Colour Remote sensing images, to derive flood plume exposure and relate to changes in seagrass abundance and composition.

This project focuses on understanding the current and future risks and responses of invasive species in the Wet Tropics. The aim is to develop a strategic approach to pest management that considers the complexity of ecological processes involved with establishment and spread and takes account of the values and assets in the region. The project will contribute to the management of invasive plants and animals by providing prioritisation tools that align with existing regional pest management frameworks.

To support management of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, coral reef managers need decision support tools that can integrate physical and biological information at a variety of spatial and temporal scales. In this project we will construct vulnerability maps for the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) This project will deliver a novel framework for linking impacts of environmental change to spatial patterns of coral reef resilience and vulnerability.

The e-Atlas is a website and mapping system for presenting environmental research data in an accessible form that promotes greater use of this information. It is also a data management system for preserving and encouraging reuse of this data. The e-Atlas is the primary data and knowledge repository for 38 NERP Tropical Ecosystems Hub projects, 6 Reef Rescue Marine Monitoring Program projects and historically, the Marine and Tropical Science Research Facility. This project will: 1.

This project will act as an integrating focus within the rainforest theme to strategically target research gaps and thereby increase our understanding of the drivers of rainforest biodiversity. We will generate high resolution maps and landscape scale estimates of temporal trends in the condition of biodiversity and environmental changes. The project consists of four subprojects: A. Monitoring: Tasks include a microsensor network, standardised vertebrate surveys, habitat structure monitoring and data harvesting from other projects.

The objective of this project is to assess how management of local stressors such as land runoff can help improve the resilience of coral reefs to global stressors (climate change) which are more difficult to manage. Complementary laboratory and field experiments will investigate the combined impacts of declining water quality (increased nutrients and sediments, and reduced light and salinity), increased sea temperature and ocean acidification on key reef species groups such as corals, foraminifera, crown-of-thorns starfish and rock-boring sea urchins. 1.

This metadata is a brief overview of the National Environmental Research Program Tropical Ecosystems (NERP TE) Hub and a metadata parent record for all datasets and projects developed as part of this research program.

The MARine Sediment (MARS) database contains detailed information on seabed sediment characteristics for samples collected from Australia's marine jurisdiction, including the Australian Antarctic Territory. It also includes the Geat Barrier Reef (GBR). It is an important scientific resource that includes survey and sample information such as locations, water depths and sample descriptions.

This project seeks to ensure that planning for the future development of the Torres Strait Islands is sustainable and capable of taking into account ecological and social information, assets, risk and existing infrastructure. This Plan provides the following information for each island: •identification of key environmental assets; •identification of key land management issues; •identification of key infrastructure needs; •land use mapping identifying land suitable for development and conservation; and •land use for the future sustainable management.

The eAtlas delivers its mapping products via two Web Mapping Services, a legacy server (from 2008-2011) and a newer primary server (2011+) to which all new content is added. This record describes the primary WMS. This service delivers map layers associated with the eAtlas project (https://eatlas.org.au), which contains map layers of environmental research focusing on the Great Barrier Reef and its neighbouring coast, the Wet Tropics rainforests and Torres Strait. It also includes lots of reference datasets that provide context for the research data.

The gbr100 dataset is a high-resolution bathymetry and Digital Elevation Model (DEM) covering the Great Barrier Reef, Coral Sea and neighbouring Queensland coastline. This DEM has a grid pixel size of 0.001-arc degrees (~100m) with a horizontal datum of WGS84 and a vertical datum of Mean Sea Level (MSL). For the latest version of this dataset download the data from http://deepreef.org/bathymet...athy.html This dataset was developed as part of the 3DGBR project.

This dataset consists of an atlas of the habitat quality of the urbanized and agricultural landscapes of the Mission beach region in August 2006, 6 months after cyclone Larry. This analysis and classification includes habitat quality, canopy cover, vegetation quality, vegetation types, tenure type and aerial photography at a resolution of 0.5m. These maps of habitat quality highlight potential priority areas for maintenance and/or restoration of connectivity and is a tool for natural resource managers to implement restoration goals at Mission beach.

1:100,000 coastal wetland vegetation mapping for the Queensland coastline including mangrove communities, saltpans and saline grasslands. Mangrove areas are classified based on the dominant genus (Ageiceras, Avicennia, Ceriops, Bruguiera, Rhizophora). This dataset was derived from automatic classification of 25m resolution Landsat TM images, colour aerial photography and ground truthing. The resulting data has a positional accuracy of 100 meters and a classification accuracy of approximately 80%.

The Collaborative Australian Protected Areas Database (CAPAD) 2010 provides both spatial and text information about government, Indigenous and privately protected areas for continental Australia. State and Territory conservation agencies supplied data current for various dates between June 2010 and January 2011. This is the eighth version of the database, with previous versions released in 1997, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008.

Trajectories of decline have been observed in coral reefs throughout the Caribbean and Indo-Pacific region attributable to the synergistic effects of human-induced disturbances. Whilst direct and indirect evidence suggests that inshore reefs from the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) are showing signs of regional decline following European settlement in the mid 18th century, it has proven difficult to ascertain the link between anthropogenic disturbance and coral degradation on a regional scale.