This record provides an overview of the scope and research output of NESP Marine Biodiversity Hub Project C2 - "Continental-scale tracking of threats to shallow Australian reef ecosystems". For specific data outputs from this project, please see child records associated with this metadata. -------------------- The project will integrate Australia’s largest, most detailed datasets of shallow-water tropical and temperate marine biodiversity, and assess how pollution, fishing, rising sea temperatures and introduced species are impacting associated natural values. An initial outcome will be the identification of state-of-the-environment indicators for inclusion in the 2016 State of the Environment report, with subsequent activities aimed at contributing additional data products needed for other NESP projects, Parks Australia, and the Essential Environmental Measures initiative. The project will also describe a national shallow-water baseline of biodiversity in Commonwealth Marine Reserves for assessment of change through the long term. Planned Outputs Publications describing: • Environmental values at all sites investigated in Commonwealth waters by Reef Life Survey divers • Compatibility of survey data obtained through LTMP, RLS and LTMPA programs, and corrections factors needed when linking outputs of these monitoring programs • Time series data depicting interannual variation over the past two decades in ecological indicators specific to individual threats • Relationships between anthropogenic stressors and reef condition, with emphasis on impacts of sewage and heavy metal pollution, fishing, warming sea temperature, urbanisation and introduced species • Sensitive and cost effective indicators of threats to environmental condition. • Coherent marine ecological data streams that feed into SoE reporting, the Essential Environmental Measures initiative, and future evaluation of Commonwealth Marine Reserves.

We implemented a monitoring program developed by Crawford and White (2006), which was designed to assess the current condition of six key estuaries in NW Tasmania: Port Sorell, the Leven, Inglis, Black, Montagu and Arthur River estuaries. This study considered a range of water quality and ecological indictors commonly used to monitor estuaries. These included: salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, pH, nutrients (nitrate + nitrite, dissolved reactive phosphorus and ammonia), silica molybdate reactive and chlorophyll a for the water column; chlorophyll a and macroinvertebrate community structure amongst the sediments. The data represented by this record was collected in Port Sorell.

This record provides an overview of the scope and research output of NESP Marine Biodiversity Hub Project D2 - "Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for survey design, condition assessment and trend detection". There are no data outputs anticipated for this project. -------------------- Understanding of the status and trends of indicators in Australia’s marine environment requires standardised monitoring, without which monitoring is unlikely to be comparable through time and space – status and trends are unlikely to be available. This project will build on the monitoring blueprint by providing foundation for Standard Operating Procedures in the collection and analysis of monitoring data. In particular, the project will 1) provide some delineation of what kind of monitoring is required (and when), 2) providing a simple tool for designing surveys in space that also analyses the resulting data, and 3) provide a worked end-to-end SOP example for a baited underwater video for collection of data in benthic key ecological features (including recommendations for field protocols to ensure ecological relevance). Planned Outputs • Standard Operating Protocol (SOPs) for deploying observation platforms, processing raw data and then analysing processed data for a set of ‘no regrets’ objectives. This includes clear recommendations about how to choose sampling locations and how to analyse the resulting survey data. • A piece of software (an R package) that implements spatially balanced designs. The software will require a minimal skill level. • A worked example, from a partner project, that will form the template for future surveys. • Scientific publications, which will be made publicly and freely available within 12 months of publication.

Mesozooplankton community composition and structure were examined throughout the D’Entrecasteaux Channel, Huon Estuary and North West Bay, Tasmania, from November 2004 to October 2005, the data represented by this record was collected on the 10/03/2005. The composition of the mesozooplankton community was typical of inshore, temperate marine habitats, with seasonally higher abundance in summer and autumn and lower numbers in winter and spring. Copepods were the largest contributors to total abundance across all seasons and stations, while cladocerans and appendicularians were proportionally abundant in spring and summer. The faecal pellets of these three main groups, along with those of krill and amphipods, also contributed significantly to material recovered from sediment traps. Meroplanktonic larvae of benthic animals showed short-term peaks in abundance and were often absent from the water column for long periods. Spatially, North West Bay and the Channel had a higher representation of typically marine species, including Calanus australis and Labidocera cervi, while truly estuarine species, such as the copepod Gladioferens pectinatus, were more important in the Huon Estuary.

The results of this survey are based primarily on the first hand experience of Craig Sanderson who was doing his masters thesis at the time on aspects of the biology of Macrocystis pyrifera (Linnaeus) C. Agardh 1820. In need of significant beds of M. pyrifera for research much of the east coast was searched by boat. Significant stands (>1/2 acre) were found at Darlington, Southerly Bottom (East North Bay), Fortesque Bay and George III Rock, (near Actaeon Island). The status of the few areas not visited was determined from anecdotal reports.

Land features were derived by aggregating and dissolving the boundaries of the 1 degree S57 file (lndare_a layer) series for the Australian continent (+ Lord Howe Island). This represents land the area defined at Lowest Astronomical Tide (LAT) by the Australian Hydrographic Office. The Great Australian Bight was missing from this series, and was replaced by Geoscience Australia's 1:100k coastline. This data has been made available through the data collation process conducted by the NESP Marine Biodiversity Hub Project D3 (Reefs on the Australian Continental Shelf).

Redmap is a primarily a website that invites the community to spot, log and map marine species that are uncommon in their region, or along particular parts of their coast. The information collected is mapped and displayed on the site, demonstrating, in time, how species distributions may be changing. Sightings are divided into two categories – those with a photo that can be ‘verified’ by a marine biologist, and sightings without photos that we call community sightings (anecdotal). All the information collected, with and without photos, is mapped and will be used in the following years to map out a ‘story’ of changes occurring in our marine environment. The main data collected includes the species sighted (normally selected from a list comprising preselected species of interest), the location, date/time and activity being undertaken. Other optional information gathered include biological data such as sex, size and weight and environmental data such as water depth and temperature and habitat. This record is associated with live data (and will subsequently change over time) and spatial elements have reduced accuracy. It is also subject to a three year embargo (ie. does not contain data less than three years old). If you wish to discuss obtaining a citable, static dataset, that is current and/or contains accurate spatial elements, please see Point of Contact.

The Aqua and Orbview satellites carry a MODIS and SeaWIFS sensors (respectively) that observes sunlight reflected from within the ocean surface layer at multiple wavelengths. These multi-spectral measurements are used to infer the concentration of chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), most typically due to phytoplankton, present in the water. There are multiple retrieval algorithms for estimating Chl-a and aggregating the data over time. This data set is a reprocessed copy of 9km monthly and 8-day versions produced globally by NASA, adjusted for the Southern Ocean south of latitude 30S. The full methodology is described in Johnson, R., Strutton, P.G., Wright, S.W., McMinn, A., Meiners, K.M., 2013. Three improved satellite chlorophyll algorithms for the Southern Ocean. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans. doi: 10.1002/jgrc.20270. It is expected that the data set will be periodically updated with contemporary data as it becomes available. There are four sub-streams within this data set. A monthly and an 8-day series for MODIS/Aqua and similarly for SeaWIFS. Note that SeaWIFS ceased operation in late 2010 so there will be no further SeaWIFS data. The data represented by this record is monthly data for SeaWIFS.