This project will determine the downburst thunderstorms over Tasmania from the Severe Storms Archive, investigate the atmospheric condition during those downburst thunderstorms and determine the probability of meteorological conditions suitable for downburst thunderstorms over Tasmania during 1990-2019. This project will use the recently completed Bureau of Meteorology Atmospheric high-resolution Regional Reanalysis for Australia (BARRA) dataset, which offers more than 100 atmospheric model variables at higher resolution in space and time than existing global reanalyses (Jakob et al. 2017). The hourly temporal resolution, 70 levels vertical resolution and 1.5 km horizontal resolution, which has been developed specifically for Tasmania and other three regions, makes it particularly powerful in comparison to larger scale reanalyses for analysis of short-term phenomena like thunderstorms and their environments in Tasmania.

During the RV Investigator Eddy voyage (IN2016_V02), we sampled a mesoscale cyclonic and anticyclonic eddy in the Southern Ocean south to Tasmania. We have collected water samples to analyse concentration of phytoplankton biomass and nutrients.

We utilize the sea level fingerprint module - ISSM’s Solid Earth and Sea level Adjustment Workbench (ISSM-SESAW), developed by NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), to provide high-resolution sea level fingerprints in response to future polar ice sheet mass changes in the 21st century under the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios. We also explore the sensitivity of sea level fingerprints to different 1-D elastic Earth models and the spatial resolution at which mass change of polar ice sheets is resolved. Furthermore, sea level contributions by individual polar ice sheet basins in the 21st century are also estimated for some coastal cities of interest (e.g., Perth) in this research.

Interaction uncertainties between tidal energy devices and marine animals have the potential to disrupt the tidal energy industry as it advances. Best-practices for environmental impact assessments (EIAs) must be explored that are able to provide conclusive recommendations for mitigating environmental impact concerns of tidal energy developments. As the tidal energy industry is moving closer to commercial-scale array installations, the development of standardised EIAs would allow for potential impact concerns for the marine environment to be identified and minimised early in the site-development process. In an effort to help formulate a standardised EIA framework that addresses knowledge gaps in fish-current interactions at tidal energy candidate sites, this study investigated changes in fish aggregations in response to tidal currents at a tidal energy candidate site in Australia prior to turbine installation. Here, we present the dataset collected for this study that includes tidal current information from Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) measurements, volume backscattering strength from a four-frequency biological echosounder (Acoustic Zooplankton and Fish Profiler – AZFP) as an indicator for fish biomass, and fish aggregation metrics calculated from volume backscatter in post-processing. ADCP and AZFP were installed on a bottom-mounted mooring and engaged in a concurrent sampling plan for ~2.5 months from December 2018 to February 2019. The mooring was deployed in the Banks Strait, a tidal energy candidate site located in the northeast of Tasmania, Australia, at a location favourable for tidal turbine installations considering current speed, depth, substrate, sediment type and proximity to shore. The ADCP dataset includes current velocity and direction measurements at a 1 m vertical and 1-sec time intervals. The raw AZFP dataset includes volume backscattering strength collected at 4-sec time intervals with a vertical resolution of 0.072 m in raw, and 0.1 m in pre-processed form. Fish aggregation metrics were derived in post-processing and are presented by the minute along with corresponding environmental conditions for current speed, shear, temperature, diel stage, and tidal stage compiled from both AZFP and ADCP datasets.

We performed a 5-week experiment in controlled laboratory settings to investigate the effects of different types of microparticles (i.e., PVC/red clay) on the performance of the Mediterranean mussel. Several response variables including respiration rate, byssus production, body condition index and survival were collected. Our study's main purpose is to examine effects of synthetic microparticles on bivalves using a more relevant methodological approach, i.e., in comparison to naturally-occurring particles, since these filter-feeders are exposed to not just microplastics in the real-world environment, but also to various naturally suspended seston particles, such as detritus and sediments.

Data for the project -Investigating the source of the high nitrate, low oxygen layer in the Leeuwin Current- is including in the file. The data include CTD data, ADCP data and Triaxus data from RV Investigator (Voyage IN2019_V03). Also the Sea Surface Height satellite data and CSIRO Atlas of Regional Seas (CARS) data are included as the supporting data. The MATLAB code including the code that calculate the rotated velocity and the transport of the EGC current in upper 300m including volume transport, salinity transport, heat transport and oxygen transport. The nitrate data from Triaxus is uncompleted and will be upload later with the code for calculating the nitrate transport.

This record provides an overview of the scope and research output of NESP Marine Biodiversity Hub Synthesis Study - "Interpreting pressure profiles". For specific data outputs from this project, please see child records associated with this metadata. -------------------- This project has two objectives: (i) provide a spatial explicit analysis of the relative risks posed to marine conservation values, as defined by the natural values hierarchy of Parks Australia's Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Improvement (MERI) framework, by pressures that operate within Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone and state/territory waters (a "hotspot" analysis); and, (ii) provide a proof of concept of an adaptive, probabilistic assessment of the cumulative risks posed to these values, in a region determined to support the Parks Australia MERI project D7, in a manner that is consistent with the seascape-scale cumulative assessment described in the "Guidelines for analysis of cumulative impacts and risks to the Great Barrier Reef". Planned Outputs • National hotspot maps of risks posed to marine conservation values • Probabilistic assessment (written) of cumulative risks

Voyage IN2019_V04 contributed an additional 29,000 kms2 of seafloor survey data to the Coral Sea knowledge base. From this new bathymetric data individual seamounts have been extracted and have been classified to the Geoscience Australia Geomorphology Classification Scheme. This dataset contains two layers representing the classification layers- 1) Surface (Plain, Slope, Escarpment) and 2) fine scale Geomorphology of the seamount for the Kenn Seamount. Ongoing research with this survey data will provide new insights into the detailed geomorphic shape and spatial relationships between adjacent seabed features. This information will be released in future publications to show the potential of how the scale of such seafloor data can be used for predictive habitat modelling when analysed with the biological data overlays.