Brief description
The Marine Futures Project was designed to benchmark the current status of key Western Australian marine ecosystems, based on an improved understanding of the relationship between marine habitats, biodiversity and our use of these values. Approximately 1,500 km2 of seafloor were mapped using hydroacoustics (Reson 8101 Multibeam), and expected benthic habitats "ground-truthed" using towed video transects and baited remote underwater video systems. Both sources of information were then combined in a spatial predictive modelling framework to produce fine-scale habitat maps showing the extent of substrate types, biotic formations, etc.Surveys took place across 9 study areas, including Mount Gardner, a site located just off Two People’s Bay, 30km east of the town of Albany. The area is host to a number of human uses, including recreational and commercial fishing, diving, surfing, recreational boat use and shipping and mining. The marine environment at this location is different to the other three study locations on the south coast, in that it encompasses the protected Two Peoples Bay with seagrass and invertebrate communities and the more exposed rocky and macroalgal reefs around the Mt Gardner peninsula itself.
Lineage
Statement: Areas of seafloor in water deeper than 10 metres were surveyed with hydroacoustics using a Reson 8101 Multibeam or interferometric swath echosounder system, mounted on the hull of the sampling vessel. These data were processed to construct full coverage maps of seafloor bathymetry and textural information. These maps, combined with observations recorded from in situ video footage, unerpinned the development of statistical models that produced the most efficient, objective, and ecologically meaningful classifications of sea floor features and inhabitants as possible for natural resource management and planning.Notes
CreditNatural Heritage Trust
Created: 2016-02-24
Data time period: 2006-01-01 to 2008-12-31
text: westlimit=118.093961; southlimit=-35.083131; eastlimit=118.318077; northlimit=-34.921415
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(DATA ACCESS - Mount Gardner reef habitat (mg_sub_d.shp) [direct download])
global : 532138db-7c8f-4346-82cf-04d16e4d662d
- global : 1d6c8927-55b9-42f3-84c3-9eea559482a1