A project investigating the restoration of string kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) habitat on Tasmania's east and south coasts. Macroalgae, fish and invertebrate counts were collected as part of the project using the Edgar Barrett transect technique in the Derwent Estuary and in the Mercury Passage on the South East Tasmania. Other fish, invertebrate and macroalgal data was also collected.

We implemented a monitoring program developed by Crawford and White (2006), which was designed to assess the current condition of six key estuaries in NW Tasmania: Port Sorell, the Leven, Inglis, Black, Montagu and Arthur River estuaries. This study considered a range of water quality and ecological indictors commonly used to monitor estuaries. These included: salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, pH, nutrients (nitrate + nitrite, dissolved reactive phosphorus and ammonia), silica molybdate reactive and chlorophyll a for the water column; chlorophyll a and macroinvertebrate community structure amongst the sediments. The data represented by this record was collected in Inglis River.

Data from multibeam echosounder surveys taken as part of the Ningaloo Outlook project were classified into various seafloor cover types according to their hardness, rugosity and depth. The classifications were validated with towed video ground truth where it was available. This dataset describes two AOIs which are explicitly part of the Ningaloo Outlook Deep Reefs project. Substratum classifications were applied using multibeam backscatter angular response curves along with rugosity as input to a maximum likelihood classifier. See original metadata record(s) and associated attached documents for accuracy estimates, alternate classification techniques, and additional surveyed areas. https://doi.org/10.25919/kssa-5b46 https://doi.org/10.25919/kttc-x397 https://doi.org/10.25919/8m65-7k26

Water quality and biological data was collected from four tide-dominated river estuaries indicative of catchments with varying levels of human impacts to: 1) assess draft indicator levels for water quality, and 2) investigate biological indicators of estuarine health in NW Tasmania. The data represented by this record was collected in the Duck Bay.

[This data has been superseded by a synthesised global dataset which includes additional ecological data contributed by non-RLS entities (National Reef Monitoring Network). Please visit the corresponding NRMN Collection (IMOS - National Reef Monitoring Network Sub-Facility - Global off-transect species observations || Global reef fish abundance and biomass) for the most current version of this data. See "Downloads and Links" section below.] This dataset contains records of bony fishes and elasmobranchs collected by Reef Life Survey (RLS) divers along 50m transects on shallow rocky and coral reefs, worldwide. Abundance information is available for all records found within quantitative survey limits (50 x 5 m swathes during a single swim either side of the transect line, each distinguished as a Block), and out-of-survey records are identified as presence-only (Method 0). Although surveys are undertaken as part of monitoring programs at particular locations (mostly in Australia), this dataset contains does not include repeat surveys of sites.

Biogenic marine habitats are increasingly threatened by a multitude of human impacts, and temperate coasts in particular are exposed to progressively more intense and frequent anthropogenic stressors. In this study, the single and multiple effects of the urban stressors of nutrification and sedimentation on kelp bed communities were examined within Australia’s largest urbanised embayment (Port Phillip Bay, Victoria). Within this system, grazing by sea urchins (Heliocidaris erythrogramma) plays an important role in structuring reef communities by overgrazing kelp beds and maintaining an alternative and stable urchin barrens state. It is therefore important to explore the effects of urban stressors on kelp bed dynamics related to urchin abundance, and test the relative strengths of bottom-up and / or physical drivers (e.g. elevated nutrients and sediment) versus top-down (e.g. urchin grazing) forces on kelp bed community structure. The interactions of these drivers were assessed to determine whether their combination has synergistic, antagonistic, or additive effects on kelp beds. It was found that kelp responds positively to nutrient enhancement, but when combined with enhanced abundance of grazing sea urchins, the local positive effect of nutrient enhancement is overwhelmed by the negative effect of increased herbivory. Turf-forming algae behaved very differently, showing no detectable response to nutrification, yet showing a positive response to urchins, apparently mediated by overgrazing of canopy-forming algae that limit turf development. No direct effects of enhanced sediment load (at twice the ambient load) were found on intact kelp beds. Collectively, the results demonstrate that the ‘top-down’ control of urchin grazing locally overwhelms the positive ‘bottom-up’ effect of nutrient enhancement, and that intact kelp beds demonstrate resilience to direct impacts of urban stressors.

Phytoplankton was counted and identified from five sites over the 5-year period. Annual cycles in abundance are available (as cells mL-1), along with detailed species identification. Cell measurements and approximate geometric shape were also recorded for the calculation of biovolume (μL cell-1). Diatoms and dinoflagellates dominated the samples in terms of biomass, however, small cells were also very abundant throughout each year. The data are restricted to an integrated sample from the top 12 m of the water column. Fluorescence profiles elsewhere in this dataset can provide an indication of phytoplankton presence lower in the water column.

An aerial survey of giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera), was carried out on the east coast of Tasmania from Musselroe Bay to Southeast Cape. This survey represents part of a series of similar surveys, with historic aerial surveys having been conducted in 1986, 1999 and 2009. This survey was conducted via light aircraft in Nov-Dec 2019, and recorded areas of visible surface canopy cover of giant kelp. Canopy areas were scribed in-flight onto 1:50,000 topographic maps (TASMAP 2017), and complimentary photo and video footage was collected. Canopy areas were digitised with reference to photo, video and map data within QGIS 3.4, and boundaries were checked against Seamap Australia seafloor habitats (Lucieer et al. 2017) and bathymetric data (Smith 2016). Each bed was attributed a broad and fine scale location, density and reliability estimate (see attached report for details). This survey was completed with funding from Pennicott Wilderness Journeys, Tassal and IMAS, and equal in-kind support by Marine Solutions and Seacare Inc.

We implemented a monitoring program developed by Crawford and White (2006), which was designed to assess the current condition of six key estuaries in NW Tasmania: Port Sorell, the Leven, Inglis, Black, Montagu and Arthur River estuaries. This study considered a range of water quality and ecological indictors commonly used to monitor estuaries. These included: salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, pH, nutrients (nitrate + nitrite, dissolved reactive phosphorus and ammonia), silica molybdate reactive and chlorophyll a for the water column; chlorophyll a and macroinvertebrate community structure amongst the sediments. The data represented by this record was collected in Leven River.