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. -------------------- Rocky reefs on Australia's temperate continental shelf support diverse ecological communities, including corals, sponges, mobile invertebrates, fish, and marine mammals. These habitats underpin important natural, economic, and cultural values and are subject to pressures from fishing, shipping, and climate change. Rocky reefs are key features of many Australian Marine Parks (AMPs), and improving knowledge of their extent and condition is essential for effective management and evaluation of conservation outcomes - particularly in offshore areas where seafloor habitat data is limited. This project addressed knowledge gaps on the extent and distribution of seabed habitats by focusing on rocky reef systems within the South-west and South-east Marine Parks Networks. It built on previous research from the NESP Marine Biodiversity Hub by collating and analysing existing seafloor data, and deploying drop cameras at priority sites (selected in consultation with Parks Australia and other end-users) to validate seafloor habitat extent and type. This new survey data was incorporated with newly developed data workflows to generate ecosystem models of reef and soft sediments, and broad-scale ecosystem classes - with a focus on workflows enabling rapid update of products and ensuring consistency across mapping outputs. These data products directly support NESP Marine and Coastal Hub Project 2.3 (Improving knowledge transfer for AMP management). The project team worked with Indigenous Rangers and organisations in the South-west region to identify opportunities for collaboration, incorporate cultural knowledge into research design, and support knowledge exchange through field-based activities and on-country engagement. The project aimed to strengthen both established and emerging relationships, building on existing collaborations between University of Western Australia (UWA) researchers and the Esperance Tjaltjraak Native Title Aboriginal Corporation (ETNTAC) on complementary projects. UWA had also previously partnered with the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council (SWALSC), in consultation with the South West Boojarah (now Karri Karrak) and the Undalup Association, to support cultural mapping and biodiversity surveys under the NESP Marine Biodiversity Hub. These partnerships informed the project’s cultural engagement approach and laid the groundwork for ongoing collaboration. Outcomes of this work included improved capacity for AMP managers to identify and monitor rocky reef habitats and key natural values, assess management effectiveness, and support initiatives such as marine spatial planning and ecosystem-based fisheries management, and contribute to emerging frameworks such as ocean accounting. It also helped to guide the targeting of future surveys, particularly in ecosystems with high conservation value. Outputs • Seafloor imagery and annotations [dataset] • Predicted 'ecosystem component' habitat maps for the temperate continental shelf [dataset] • Predicted reef and sediment extent map for the temperate continental shelf [dataset] • Final technical report [written]

The Seamap Australia National Benthic Habitat Layer (NBHL) is a compilation of benthic habitat datasets obtained from various sectors including research, government, industry and community sources, across Australia. Disparate datasets are integrated into a single national-scale benthic habitat database, and classified uniformly under a national classification scheme implemented as a controlled vocabulary (https://vocabs.ardc.edu.au/viewById/129). For acceptance into the 'formal' (validated_ Seamap Australia NBHL (see https://metadata.imas.utas.edu.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/4739e4b0-4dba-4ec5-b658-02c09f27ab9a), source habitat datasets must meet a set of Acceptance Criteria (documented in https://seamapaustralia.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/SeamapAustraliaDataAcceptanceGuidelines.pdf). Broadly speaking, for inclusion in the Seamap Australia NBHL, datasets must: (1) be well-described by metadata or associated documentation; (2) employ a single, consistent classification scheme which avoids non-deterministic or ambiguous terms; (3) bequality-controlled by the provider prior to contribution; (4) beacquired using an established and community-endorsed form of data collection (eg satellite, aerial or acoustic remote sensing); and (5) have documented evidence of ground-truthing validation at the time of data collection (e.g. drop camera, towed video, benthic grabs). This record describes habitat datasets that meet Acceptance Criteria 1-4, but *have not* been validated/ground-truthed and are therefore ineligible for inclusion in the formal Seamap Australia NBHL. They have been synthesised and uniformly classified using an identical methodology to the NBHL, but represent an intermediate collection of habitat datasets that would benefit from field ground-truthing in order to validate the habitat classifications. The Seamap Australia synthesis of unvalidated habitat datasets can be viewed, analysed and downloaded from the Seamap Australia data portal (https://seamapaustralia.org/map). This dataset should be considered a “live” asset and will continue to develop as more unvalidated habitat datasets are collected or made available. The most current (2024) version of the data is available from the following endpoints: WMS: https://geoserver.imas.utas.edu.au/geoserver/seamap/wms WFS: https://geoserver.imas.utas.edu.au/geoserver/seamap/wfs Layer name: SeamapAus_NBHL_unvalidated Various download options are supplied in the “Online resources” section of this record.

The Seamap Australia National Benthic Habitat Layer (NBHL) is a compilation of benthic habitat datasets obtained from various sectors including research, government, industry and community sources, across Australia. These disparate datasets have been integrated into a single national-scale benthic habitat database, and classified uniformly under a national classification scheme implemented as a controlled vocabulary (https://vocabs.ardc.edu.au/viewById/129). Creation of this classification scheme complements work undertaken by the National Environmental Science Program (NESP) Marine Biodiversity Hub (Theme D). For acceptance into the Seamap Australia NBHL, source habitat datasets must meet a set of Acceptance Criteria (documented in https://seamapaustralia.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/SeamapAustraliaDataAcceptanceGuidelines.pdf). Broadly speaking, for inclusion in the Seamap Australia NBHL, datasets must: (1) be well-described by metadata or associated documentation; (2) employ a single, consistent classification scheme which avoids non-deterministic or ambiguous terms; (3) bequality-controlled by the provider prior to contribution; (4) beacquired using an established and community-endorsed form of data collection (eg satellite, aerial or acoustic remote sensing); and (5) have documented evidence of ground-truthing validation at the time of data collection (e.g. drop camera, towed video, benthic grabs). The Seamap Australia NBHL can be viewed, analysed and downloaded from the Seamap Australia data portal (https://seamapaustralia.org/map) – a national repository of seafloor habitat data and a decision support tool for marine managers. All habitat datasets in the Seamap Australia data portal, including the NBHL and all local- to regional-scale contributing datasets, are available for download. The Seamap Australia NBHL is a data collection of national importance and highlights the diversity of benthic habitats across Australia’s marine estate. This is the first Australian habitat dataset that seamlessly consolidates data from each of Australia’s state and territory providers. This dataset should be considered a “live” asset and will continue to develop as more suitable validated habitat data becomes available for inclusion, and improvements in data collection and analysis techniques enhance its resolution and currency. The most current (2025) version of the data is available from the following endpoints: WMS: https://geoserver.imas.utas.edu.au/geoserver/seamap/wms WFS: https://geoserver.imas.utas.edu.au/geoserver/seamap/wfs Layer name: SeamapAus_National_Benthic_Habitat_Layer A download link for the full dataset is supplied in the 'Download and Links' section of this record, along with download links to older versions of the dataset. Note that data is now only available in Geodatabase (.gdb) format as it exceeds Shapefile size limits.