Recent datasets

A baseline survey of green (no-take) zoned sites and blue (open to fishing) sites in adjacent areas of the northern Great Barrier Reef Marine Park was carried out in December 2006. Three paired sites were surveyed in the Cairns region on deepwater shoals in the vicinity of Green Island and Michaelmas Reef (one green, one blue site off each), and Hastings (Green) and Oyster (blue) Reefs. Assessment of the fish communities was enumerated using baited underwater video sets (BRUVS) and habitat was characterised by towed video.

Abundance and size of the sponge Coscinoderma matthewsi was surveyed at 5 island groups in November 2006: Ugar (Stephen Island) and Erub (Darnley Island) in eastern Torres Strait; and Masig (Yorke Island), Poruma (Coconut Island) and Warraber (Sue Island) in central Torres Strait. These island groups are on average, 66 km apart.Surveys were carried out at 7 or 8 randomly selected locations in each island group with each location at least 2 km apart, averaging 8 km. Each location was divided into 2 sites, approximately 200 m apart.

During August 2005, sediment was collected from four reefs in the Whitsunday Islands and two adjacent midshelf reefs, situated along a previously studied water quality gradient. The reefs at Repulse and Lindeman Islands are influenced by discharge generated by the Proserpine and O'Connell Rivers. In the outer Whitsunday Islands, Hook and Edward Islands reefs, are subject to terrestrial influence, which is largely derived from the islands themselves. The midshelf reefs, Barb Reef and Reef 19-138 are essentially unaffected by terrestrial discharge.

In March 2007, November 2007 and May 2008, between 6 and 11 sites were surveyed on the coral reefs at Keats Island and Yorke Islands (Masig Island and Kodall Island), in central Torres Strait, to determine the abundance and size frequency patterns of Coscinoderma matthewsi. Sites were located at least 1 km apart and at each site, surveys were conducted at both shallow (4-6 m) and deep (10-12 m) depths, with the former generally on the reef flat. Three 20 x 1 m transects were examined at each depth, with transects separated by at least 20 m to retain independence.

This experimental study of larval settlement behaviour of Coscinoderma mathewsi, undertaken in December 2009, explored some specific aspects of recruitment behaviour raised from the Torres Strait recuritment study.Research was conducted in tanks at Orpheus Island under controlled conditions to complement field recruitment studies in the Torres Strait (see separate metadata record).

A one-off study of the effects of handling on Coscinoderma mathewsi around Masig (Yorke) and Kodall (off Masig) Islands. Experimental work was carried out in 2009.Measurements of growth (cm) and survival were made to determine how handling might affect sponge growth and survival under aquaculture conditions. To determine how handling under aquaculture condiditons might affect sponge growth and survival in Coscinoderma mathewsi.

Owner

Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS)

Publisher

Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS)

Point of contact

A study of recruitment of marine invertebrates around Masig Island and Marsden Island, in central Torres Strait commenced in November 2006 and ended in November 2008.Terracotta settlement plates (11 cm x 11 cm) with well pitted surfaces were deployed at three locations on the northern side of each island, with locations two hundred metres apart. Each location was further divided into three sites, each twenty metres apart. At each site, five plates were deployed, roughly one metre apart, at both six metres and twelve metres depth.

This record details the TUMRAs that were in effect in 2009. Since then the number of TUMRAs has significantly increases. For the latest agreements refer to GBRMPA. A more recent version of this dataset is available on the eAtlas: https://eatlas.org.au/data/u...c94977e6b Traditional use activities in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park are managed under the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975, and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Regulations 1983.

This dataset is consists of modelled habitat suitability of coastal seagrass distribution in the wet and dry seasons along the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area coastline. A Bayesian belief network was used to quantify the relationship (dependencies) between seagrass and eight environmental drivers: relative wave exposure, bathymetry, spatial extent of flood plumes, season, substrate, region, tidal range and sea surface temperature. We found that at the scale of the entire GBRWHA, the main drivers of inshore seagrass presence are tidal range and relative exposure.

The aim of this component of the Reef Rescue Monitoring Program is to assess trends in the concentrations of specific herbicides and pesticides, primarily through routine monitoring at sites (Green Island, Low Isles, Fitzroy Island, Normanby Island, Dunk Island, Orpheus Island, Magnetic Island, Cape Cleveland, Pioneer Bay, Outer Whitsunday, Sarina Inlet, North Keppel Island) within 20km of the Queensland coast. The monitoring year for routine pesticide sampling is from May to April.

Traditional use activities in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park are managed under the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975, and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Regulations 2019. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Zoning Plan 2003 recognises that under section 211 of the Native Title Act 1993, native title holders may undertake traditional use of marine resources in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. eAtlas Notes: This is not the authoritative metadata for this dataset.

Climate change has emerged as the single greatest threat to coral reefs. The climate change threat will take many forms and includes projections that there will be higher abundances of coral diseases. Links have already been made between high temperatures and outbreaks of the disease ‘white syndrome’ in the Indo-Pacific but little is known about the disease due, in part, to not knowing where outbreaks will occur.

The purpose of this study is to detect and quantify spatial and temporal changes in reef fish assemblages of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Between 1993 and 2005, reef fish assemblages of 46 reefs were monitored annually along permanent transects within a standard habitat using visual census. The selected intensive survey reefs are distributed across three positions of the continental shelf and among six sectors each representing one band of latitude. These reefs continue to be surveyed in odd years as part of the Long Term Monitoring Program (LTMP).

Pattern of seagrass distribution in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area Seagrasses in waters deeper than 15m in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area adjacent to the Queensland coast were surveyed using a camera and dredge towed for 4-6 minutes at 1,429 sites spanning from 10ºS to 25ºS and from inshore out to the reef edge up to 120nm from the coast. At each site seagrass presence, species and biomass were recorded together with depth, sediment, sechii, algae and epibenthos, and proximity to reefs.

This very large study is part of the Seabed biodiversity study, published in Pitcher et al. (2007). Its purpose was to quantify patterns in seabed biodiversity and inter-reefal environmental conditions throughout the GBR.

The purpose of this study was to quantify patterns in skeletal density, linear extension and calcification throughout the GBR based on the AIMS Coral Core Archive of 328 colonies of massive Porites from 69 reefs. Annual data for the three growth parameters, skeletal density, annual extension, and calcification rate (the product of skeletal density and annual extension) were obtained from each colony using standard x-ray and gamma densitometry techniques.

The purpose of this study is to quantify spatial and temporal changes in the density of crown-of-thorns starfish and benthic cover in the Great Barrier Reef. Broad-scale manta tow surveys have been conducted by the Long-Term Monitoring Program (LTMP) of the Australian Institiute of Marine Science since 1986, counting crown-of-thorns-starfish (COTS, Acanthaster planci). COTS densities fluctuates over years forming southward bound ‘waves’ (the incidence of reefs with new active outbreaks moving south over time, due to the southward transport of larvae by the East Australian Current).

This very large study is published in Pitcher et al. (2007). Its purpose was to quantify patterns in seabed biodiversity and inter-reefal environmental conditions throughout the GBR.

The purpose of this study was to quantify patterns in octocoral biodiversity and their environmental drivers on the GBR. The data are based on visual surveys of octocoral communities (soft corals and sea fans) on 163 GBR reefs. Octocorals contain taxa with and without endosymbiotic microalgae (zooxanthellae), and these two groups have contrasting distributions and ecological niches (Fabricius and De’ath 2008). Richness is therefore presented as number of taxa with and without zooxanthellae.

The purpose of this study was to quantify patterns in scleractinian biodiversity, and in the cover of the main benthos groups, on the Great Barrier Reef. Taxonomic surveys of hard corals conducted on 110 reefs (599 transects) of the GBR between 1994 and 2001. Surveys are based on rapid ecological assessments (taxonomic inventories based on swim surveys) conducted at two depth zones (deep and shallow), typically at two sites per reef. The data are abundance estimates of each species. Richness is calculated based on reef-averaged data.