Spatial inventory of publications for priority species in relation to Offshore Renewable Energy areas in Australia (NESP MaC 3.3)
This project undertook a review of existing environmental literature and data on threatened and migratory marine species data to inform the sustainable development of Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) projects (primarily wind) in Australia.
A list of priority species and species of secondary importance were identified by the project together with stakeholders from DCCEEW and NOPSEMA. This list comprised of 100 species of birds, cetaceans, bony fish, sharks, pinnipeds and marine turtles.
A literature search was undertaken for each species using a systematic approach detailed in the 'Lineage' section of this record. Each publication was assessed for whether the study location was within or near the ORE area and an attribute populated to indicate the ORE area(s) overlapped. Studies with spatial coverages not overlapping the ORE area were still retained if they were located nearby the ORE area, for species with poorly-defined distributions (e.g. short-finned pilot whales), or for migratory coastal birds that may use the ORE area as migration corridors. The potential impacts of ORE infrastructure and operation for each species was noted from a controlled list of potential impacts. The main topic of the study, and the methodologies used in the study, were also recorded, along with the general spatial location(s) of the study and the publication citation.
The resultant inventory serves as a comprehensive record of existing publications associated with priority species potentially at risk from ORE developments, along with the nature of the potential impact. The inventory is intended to provide research information and methods for use in the planning, development, operation, and decommissioning phases of the offshore wind sector.
The dataset attached to this record provides a spatial index of of all publications identified through this inventory process. Observation data each of the species were additionally compiled from BirdLife Australia, Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS), Victorian Biodiversity Atlas Victorian Biodiversity Atlas (VBA), and GlobalArchive (a repository of stereo-video annotations data). These data are freely available to download from each of the source repositories.
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Publication)
- 2024-09-29T00:00:00
Identifier
- Title
- Information and documentation - Digital object identifier system
- Citation identifier
- ISO 26324:2012
- Code
- 10.25959/dx2n-b251
- Codespace
- doi.org
- Description
- Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Principal investigator
Principal investigator
- Credit
- National Environmental Science Program (NESP) Marine and Coastal Hub
- Credit
- This research was made possible by a large collaboration between a number of Australian research organisations, industry, state and federal government departments, and regulatory bodies. Please see the associated Final Project Report for the full list of contributors.
- Status
- Completed
Point of contact
Point of contact
Point of contact
- Topic category
-
- Biota
- Oceans
- Structure
- Environment
Extent

Temporal extent
- Time period
- 1980-01-01 2024-01-31
- Maintenance and update frequency
- Not planned
- Keywords (Theme)
-
- threatened, endangered and protected species
- environmental impact assessment
- ecologically sustainable development
- Offshore renewable energy (ORE)
- data inventory
- offshore wind energy
- Keywords (Taxon)
-
- marine mammals
- marine turtles
- Cetaceans
- Pinnipeds
- Macroalgae
- Seabirds
- Elasmobranchs
- Global Change Master Directory Earth Science Keywords, Version 8.5
Resource constraints
- Other constraints
- This dataset is hosted by the University of Tasmania, on behalf of AIMS, Deakin University and NESP Marine and Coastal Hub Project 3.3.
Resource constraints
- Use limitation
- Data was sourced from the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub – the Marine and Coastal Hub is supported through funding from the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program (NESP), administered by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.
Resource constraints
- Linkage
-
https://licensebuttons.net/l/by/4.0/88x31.png
License Graphic
- Title
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
- Alternate title
- CC-BY
- Edition
- 4.0
- Website
-
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
License Text
- Other constraints
- Cite data as: McLean, D., Ierodiaconou, D., Young, M., Klaassen, M., Speed, C., Thums, M., Langlois, T., Navarro, M., & Sprogis, K. (2024). Spatial inventory of publications for priority species in relation to Offshore Renewable Energy areas in Australia [Data set]. AIMS, Deakin University & NESP Marine and Coastal Hub. https://doi.org/10.25959/DX2N-B251
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Distribution Information
- OnLine resource
-
DATA DOWNLOAD - Geopackage (.gpkg) format
File can be opened with any desktop GIS software.
- OnLine resource
-
DATA DOWNLOAD - ESRI Shapefile (.shp) format
WARNING: field names and full citation strings will be truncated!
Resource lineage
- Statement
- A systematic approach was used to compile the inventory of publication for ORE priority species and and species of secondary importance using the following steps: • A literature was conducted for each species by: i) using the online Species Profile and Threat (SPRAT) database; ii) cross-checking literature from NESP Project 3.21; iii) using Google Scholar with the search term of ‘species Latin name’, ‘species common name’, and “Australia”’; and iv) using project team knowledge. • Each publication was assessed (by eye) for whether the study locations were within or near ORE areas, and the nature of the overlap(s) was recorded. • The following information was extracted for each study: general study location, Australian state(s), primary study topic/theme, primary methodology, dataset citation. Methodology was scored as one or more of: vessel survey, aerial survey, land survey, telemetry, satellite imagery, PAM, BRUVs, UAV, towed camera, genetics, behavioural observations, and/or Other. The main study subject was scored as one or more of: threats/disturbance, distribution/movement behaviour/habitat utilisation, population abundance/density/temporal trends/monitoring, population structure/genetic connectivity/sub-speciation, diet/foraging ecology/feeding behaviour, behaviour, pathogens/disease, physiology. • The potential impacts of ORE for each species was noted by selecting one or more of: ‘collision with turbines’, ‘habitat change’, ‘trophic cascades’, ‘barrier effects/displacement’, ‘vessel strike/disturbance’, ‘noise disturbance’, ‘light pollution’, ‘electromagnetic field’, and ‘pollution’. The literature search was completed in January 2024 and only includes publication up until this date. It focused on more current publications (~last 10 years) if data sources were numerous and is therefore not exhaustive. For species were fewer data sources were available, older publications were included. In some specific cases such as whaling literature (<1900s) for priority cetacean species, whaling information was included to indicate potential offshore species distributions within the nearby ORE areas.
- Hierarchy level
- Dataset
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
- urn:uuid/75e86fa1-28de-4b9e-9987-70bec506c4fa
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Point of contact
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Dataset
- Metadata linkage
-
https://metadata.imas.utas.edu.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/75e86fa1-28de-4b9e-9987-70bec506c4fa
Point of truth URL of this metadata record
- Date info (Creation)
- 2024-09-24T00:00:00
- Date info (Revision)
- 2025-02-06T22:36:57
Metadata standard
- Title
- ISO 19115-3:2018
Overviews
Spatial extent

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