This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub project "Mapping temperate continental shelf seabed habitats". For specific data outputs from this project, please see child records associated with this metadata.

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Rocky reefs provide anchors for attached marine invertebrate species such as corals and sponges, creating habitat for mobile invertebrates, and resident and roving fishes and mammals. They are subject to pressures from activities such as fishing, shipping, as well as climate change. Given their important natural, economic and social value, rocky reefs are focus areas for management in marine bioregional plans and Australian Marine Parks (AMPs).

Previous collaborative research by the NESP Marine Biodiversity Hub and Parks Australia found that for many AMPs, understanding the extent of seabed habitats (including reef) is a priority for evaluating management effectiveness. While detailed habitat maps exists for many nearshore regions, however, they are lacking for Commonwealth waters.

This project will fill gaps in knowledge of the extent and distribution of seabed habitats on Australia’s temperate continental shelf, with a focus on surveys of rocky reefs in the South-west Marine Parks Network and the South-east Marine Parks Network. Existing data will be collated and analysed to validate the presence/absence of seabed habitats on the temperate continental shelf, and drop cameras will be deployed at priority areas the validate habitats. The new knowledge will enhance the capacity of AMP managers to protect marine park values and assess the effectiveness of management.

Outputs

• Seafloor imagery and annotations [dataset]

• Validated habitat maps (for AMPs with detailed observations) [dataset]

• Habitat prediction maps (for AMPs lacking observations) [dataset]

• Updated reef extent layer for temperate continental shelf [dataset]

• Final technical report [written]