Recent datasets

This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub study - NESP MaC Project 3.19: Addressing Kakadu’s strategic marine research needs. The Indigenous-owned lands of Kakadu National Park are World Heritage-listed and globally significant. The natural and cultural values of Kakadu are at risk from a range of threats that will intensify over time. To prioritise the management of these threats, there is a pressing need to develop a Kakadu research strategy.

This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub study - Project 3.5 – Supporting regional planning in northern Australia: Building knowledge, skills and partnerships for understanding seagrass distribution. For specific data outputs from this project, please see child records associated with this metadata. Northern Australia has vast development opportunities but limited knowledge of the environment to inform decision making. This region has globally significant seagrass habitat, supporting dugong, green turtle, and commercially important fish and prawns.

This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub small-scale study - Project 3.8 – Carbon abatement and biodiversity enhancements through controlling feral ungulate disturbance in wetlands. For specific data outputs from this project, please see child records associated with this metadata. Feral ungulates (e.g., cattle, pigs, buffalo) damage wetlands, reducing biodiversity, water quality and cultural heritage values, but funding for management has been inadequate.

This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub small-scale study - Project 3.10 – A partnership approach to filling key knowledge gaps on dugongs in northern Australia using novel technologies. For specific data outputs from this project, please see child records associated with this metadata. In Australia, the dugong is protected under the EPBC Act 1999 as a listed migratory, and listed marine species, it is also a Matter of National Environmental Significance.

This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub small-scale study - Project 3.2 - Developing a National Indigenous Environmental Research Network – Marine and Coastal research case studies. For specific data outputs from this project, please see child records associated with this metadata.

This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub small-scale study - Project 3.9 - Establishing an Indigenous led approach to coordinated vertebrate pest management in northern Australia. For specific data outputs from this project, please see child records associated with this metadata. Wild livestock (particularly pigs, buffalo and cattle) are one of the primary threats to coastal ecosystem values in northern Australia.

This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub study - Project 3.11 - Multi- fishery collaboration to assess population abundances and post release survival of threatened sawfish in northern Australia. For specific data outputs from this project, please see child records associated with this metadata.

This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub study - Project 3.18 – Robust citizen science for reef habitat assessment in support of management. For specific data outputs from this project, please see child records associated with this metadata. By mobilising tourism vessels and thousands of citizens, the Great Reef Census (GRC) has demonstrated that citizen-based infrastructure can undertake reconnaissance of hundreds of reefs and garner private donor support.

This record provides an overview of an NESP Marine and Coastal Hub Research Project 3.17 - Locating Unidentified Reef and Habitat Features in the Northern Australian Seascape. For specific data outputs from this project, please see child records associated with this metadata. This project will map the reefs of the northern Australian seascape, from central Western Australia, through to western Cape York in Queensland. Reefs are hotspots of conservation as they provide habitat for numerous marine species but are poorly mapped for much of northern Australia.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Monitoring Program for Inshore Water Quality (MMP WQ) has monitored inshore water quality of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) lagoon since 2005 through the collection of in situ water chemistry data, along with time-series of temperature, salinity, fluorescence, and turbidity. This program is a partnership between the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, the Australian Government, the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), James Cook University (JCU), and the Cape York Water Partnership (CYWP).

This metadata record describes vertical profile data from Conductivity Temperature and Depth (CTD) profilers collected through in situ monitoring by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Monitoring Program for Inshore Water Quality (MMP WQ). A full description of the MMP WQ and its associated datasets can be found in the parent metadata record linked above.

This dataset summarises benthic surveys in Marra Sea Country, including the Limmen Marine Park (Commonwealth) and Limmen Bight Marine Park (Northern Territory) into 4 GIS shapefiles. (1) A point (site) shapefile describes (a) seagrass presence/absence, (b) seagrass species composition, (c) algae cover and (d) benthic macro-invertebrate cover at n=2018 sites surveyed by small vessel and helicopter.

This dataset summarises 40 years of seagrass data collection (1983-2022) within Torres Strait and the Gulf of Carpentaria into two GIS shapefiles: (1) a point shapefile that includes survey data for 48,612 geolocated sites, and (2) a polygon geopackage describing seagrass at 641 individual or composite meadows. Managing seagrass resources in northern Australia requires adequate baseline information on where seagrass is (presence/absence), the mapped extent of meadows, what species are present, and date of collection.

This dataset consists of the historical range limits and poleward-most extent of recent extralimital occurrence of 82 potential marine species’ range extensions around Australia (NSW, QLD, SA, TAS, VIC and WA) revealed by an assessment of citizen scientists observations from Redmap, Reef Life Survey, and iNaturalist from 2013–2022. The purpose of this project was to assess evidence for climate-driven marine species range extensions with data provided by Australian citizen scientists.

This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub small-scale study - Barriers to using UAVs in conservation and environmental management. Environmental managers are embracing technology to assist with monitoring and evaluating coastal wetlands. Drones are being used routinely for fauna tracking and water sample collection; however, barriers in broader application still remain for adoption in environmental management. This research will survey conservation professionals about the barriers preventing drone adoption.

This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub small-scale study - Defining a pathway for the operational use of emerging technologies on country. Marine and coastal impacts in northern Australia occur overwhelmingly on Indigenous managed land. However, the collection, analysis and use of data to support adaptive management of the threats to these important ecosystems is dominated by external organisations. Existing monitoring solutions rely on trust in the training and expertise of the people collecting the data.

This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub small-scale study - NESP Marine and Coastal Hub scoping study: New approaches to monitoring. Observations of marine species have rapidly diversified over the last decade with increasing numbers of observations collected either through citizen science programs or opportunistically by citizens and then submitted into public databases.

This project aims to assess the impacts of Tropical Cyclone Jasper and associated flooding on inshore coastal habitats (i.e. mangroves, seagrass, coral) in the northern GBR. This project will provide a current consolidated asset assessment that will be compared against previous monitoring/assessment data to determine any impacts of TC Jasper. This will be achieved through high-resolution imagery, rapid on-ground aerial surveys, subtidal surveys using underwater camera systems, and consolidating other available information (i.e., anecdotal/private records).

This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub small-scale study - NESP MaC Project 1.29 a: Great Reef Census - a case study to integrate citizen science data into research output for marine habitat management". For specific data outputs from this project, please see child records associated with this metadata. To maximise our understanding of our marine and coastal environment, we need to take advantage of emerging technologies and approaches. This includes citizen science, community monitoring and Indigenous Rangers.

This dataset consists of seagrass shoot height and biomass assessments from an experiment which compared control plots to exclusion cage plots which prevented megaherbivore grazing. This experiment ran at two sites from September 2021 to April 2022. We use a short-term field study, adapting recent methods applied in the Great Barrier Reef to investigate the role of megaherbivore grazing in two key locations where seagrass declines have been most dramatic: the Orman Reefs and Mabuyag Island.