Marine pressures operating within Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone (NESP MaC 1.3)

The National Environmental Science Program projects SS2 and D7 (under the Marine Biodiversity Hub) and 1.3 (under the Marine and Coastal Hub) were instigated to support the design of Monitoring Effectiveness (ME) framework for Australian Marine Park (AMP) estate, and contribute to the AMP Science Plan. The overall objective of these projects was to provide a nationally accepted common language to describe natural values and pressures, and a robust approach to combining this information to inform national priorities for monitoring inside AMPs. Broadly, the following approach was taken: 1. Identify Key Natural Values (KNVs) in AMP networks through an expert elicitation process, 2. Develop a national-scale ecosystem map via a combination of depth and characteristic habitat using the ME framework 3. Collate and synthesise pressures operating within Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone and state/territory waters, as defined by the ME framework's pressures common language 4. Provide a spatially explicit analysis of the relative risks posed to marine conservation values, as defined by the ME framework’s natural values hierarchy. This record describes component 3: collating the pressures by ME common language for all of Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone and state/territory waters; and determining the cumulative pressure exerted by each activity/sub-activity combination. Components 1, 2 & 4 will be described elsewhere.