Synthesizing 35 years of seagrass spatial data from the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, Queensland, Australia

Carter, Alex B., McKenna, Skye A., Rasheed, Michael A., Collier, Catherine, McKenzie, Len, Pitcher, Roland, and Coles, Rob (2021) Synthesizing 35 years of seagrass spatial data from the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, Queensland, Australia. Limnology and Oceanography Letters, 6 (4). pp. 216-226.

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Abstract

The Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area in Queensland, Australia contains globally significant seagrasses supporting key ecosystem services, including habitat and food for threatened populations of dugong and turtle. We compiled 35 years of data in a spatial database, including 81,387 data points with georeferenced seagrass and species presence/absence, depth, dominant sediment type, and collection date. We include data collected under commercial contract that have not been publicly available. Twelve seagrass species were recorded. The deepest seagrass was found at 76 m. Seagrass meadows are at risk from anthropogenic, climate and weather processes. Our database is a valuable resource that provides coastal managers and the global marine community with a long-term spatial resource describing seagrass populations from the mid-1980s against which to benchmark change. We address the data issues involved in hindcasting over 30 years to ensure confidence in the accuracy and reliability of data included.

Item ID: 68712
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 2378-2242
Keywords: Seagrass, coastal habitat, Great Barrier Reef, spatial data, Indo-Pacific, tropical
Copyright Information: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
Funders: National Environmental Science Program (NESP)
Projects and Grants: Tropical Water Quality Hub Project 3.1, 3.2.1, Tropical Water Quality Hub Project 5.4
Research Data: https://doi.org/10.25909/y1yk-9w85
Date Deposited: 15 Jul 2021 23:52
FoR Codes: 41 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 4104 Environmental management > 410401 Conservation and biodiversity @ 50%
41 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 4104 Environmental management > 410402 Environmental assessment and monitoring @ 50%
SEO Codes: 18 ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT > 1802 Coastal and estuarine systems and management > 180201 Assessment and management of coastal and estuarine ecosystems @ 50%
18 ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT > 1805 Marine systems and management > 180501 Assessment and management of benthic marine ecosystems @ 50%
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