This record provides an overview of the scope and research output of NESP Marine Biodiversity Hub Project B4 - "Underpinning the repair and conservation of Australia’s threatened coastal-marine habitats". For specific data outputs from this project, please see child records associated with this metadata. -------------------- The primary objective of this project is to provide essential research to underpin restoration efforts to increase the success and efficiency of shellfish and saltmarsh repair. The secondary objective is to quantify clear easily understood benefits of repair to further increase groundswell, Indigenous and interest group support for repair efforts. For Phase 2 this involves: Shellfish reefs 1. Providing critical research to underpin the success of companion works investments into Sydney rock oyster (Saccostrea glomerata) restoration in Qld and NSW 2. Ongoing engagement with Indigenous groups, focused around especially SEQ and NSW to match the emphasis on Sydney rock oyster; 3. Through the Nature Conservancy, linking to shellfish restoration works in Port Phillip Bay (Vic), St Vincent’s Gulf (SA) and Oyster Harbour (WA) so that a National Business Case complete with examples of successes to date can be developed; 4. Underpinning this succinct business case with an information base for any follow-on activities such as assessment of shellfish reefs as an endangered community. Salt marshes 1. Estimating the benefits of salt marsh repair for an easily publicly understood indicator - prawn species. 2. Undertaking this work in NSW and Qld in parallel with proposed repair works so that very concrete case studies are available to demonstrate the benefits of repair. Planned Outputs Shellfish reef project outputs: • A scientific paper published in an eminent, peer-reviewed journal describing the ecology and biodiversity of shellfish reefs and biodiversity comparison against other marine habitats; • A scientific paper published in an eminent, peer-reviewed journal which identifies trajectories of change from past baselines to current condition and develops achievable targets for repair; • News stories, web articles, social media, brochures and oral presentations at national/international conferences, which communicate the key research findings to coastal stakeholders such as fishers, divers, NRM groups and government agencies; • News stories, web articles and social media which communicate the importance of shellfish reefs and shellfish food sources to Indigenous Australians; • Summary of community benefit and business propositions for coastal wetland repair expanding on the vision of a rejuvenated coastal ecology and written at the level required for input to various investors, agencies and public policy; • Updates at the end of 2016 as part of stakeholder engagement and continued communication. Salt marsh prawn productivity outputs: • A scientific paper published in an eminent, peer-reviewed journal quantifying and contrasting prawn productivity in healthy and degraded salt marsh communities in tropical and temperate environments; • Publicly accessible communication resources (brochures, social media, media releases and webpages) which articulate simply the prawn productivity values of salt marshes and links this to the need for the protection, conservation and restoration of degraded salt marsh communities.

Estimates of the value of habitats can provide an objective basis for the prioritisation of conservation and restoration actions. Bivalve habitats, three-dimensional structures made of high-densities of bivales (most often oysters or mussels), their shells and other organisms, used to be a dominant habitat found in temperate and subtropical coastal waters. These habitats, provide a suite of ecosystem services such as habitat provision and food supply for many species, substrate stabilisation and shoreline protection, and water quaility improvements through their filter feeding. Bivalve habitat restoration is increasingly seen as an opportunity to return lost ecosystem services. In Australia, there is growing interest in bivalve habitat restoration, but there is a knowledge gap in regards to the services they provide. Here, we determined the habitat value of a historically dominant oyster species in Australia, Saccostrea glomerata. At remnant soft-sediment oyster reefs at four locations we estimated density, biomass, productivity and composition of mobile macroinvertebrate communities and compared these with adjacent ‘bare’ soft sediments, which typically replace ecologically extinct oyster reefs. The oyster reefs had a distinct assemblage of macroinvertebrates, with 30% higher densities, 5 times the biomass and almost 5 times the productivity of adjacent bare sediments. Infauna macroinvertebrate productivity was more than twice as high below oyster reefs, suggesting these reefs facilitate infaunal productivity. Crustaceans, an important food source for small fishes, were 13 times more productive on oyster reefs compared to adjacent bare sediments. These results demonstrate that oyster reefs provide an important habitat for macroinvertebrates and that restoration efforts are likely to provide significant returns in enhanced productivity.

The Australian Coastal Restoration Network (ACRN) database collates information about coastal restoration projects in eight different ecosystems across Australia and New Zealand: shellfish, macroalgae, seagrass, mangrove, saltmarsh, coastal wetland and coral environments. This record represents a static snapshot of the database made in March 2020. The ACRN website (https://www.acrn.org.au) may contain more recent updates to the database.

The Australian Shellfish Reef Restoration Network is a recently established Community of Practice which brings together organisations and individuals interested in shellfish reef education, conservation, restoration and management. The Network aims to improve awareness of shellfish reef habitat and educate the broader public on the value of shellfish habitat conservation and restoration. The Network also promotes communication, restoration training, policy and regulation, research and development and implementation amongst network members. This record describes images collected by the Australian Shellfish Reef Restoration Network and freely available on https://shellfishreefs.smugmug.com/