2021 State of the Environment Report Marine Chapter – Expert Assessment – State and Trend – Water column – neritic (0-200 m, on-shelf)

Researchers: Dr Jason Everett (Author) ,  Dr Jason Everett (Author) ,  Emma Flukes (Point of contact) ,  Professor Anthony Richardson (Author) ,  Professor Anthony Richardson (Author)

Brief description The Marine chapter of the 2021 State of the Environment (SoE) report incorporates multiple expert templates developed from streams of marine data. This metadata record describes the Expert Assessment "State and Trend of Water column – neritic (0-200 m, on-shelf)". ***A PDF of the full Expert Assessment, including figures and tables (where provided) is downloadable in the "On-line Resources" section of this record as "EXPERT ASSESSMENT 2021 - State and Trend – Water column – neritic (0-200 m, on-shelf)"*** ---------------------------------------- DESCRIPTION OF HABITAT/COMMUNITY FOR EXPERT ASSESSMENT The water column (pelagic) community includes microbes, phytoplankton, zooplankton, fish and other higher trophic levels including seabirds, marine reptiles and marine mammals. By definition, the pelagic community is mobile, as smaller species are moved passively by currents, and larger species often move over large distances, both horizontally and vertically. Here we focus on the neritic zone, the area close to the coast and overlying the continental shelf. We analyse the abundance/biomass of a selected group of pelagic trophic levels, those that are monitored and readily available in the neritic pelagic region from IMOS (i.e., Chlorophyll a representing phytoplankton biomass, Zooplankton biomass and Fish larval abundance). DATA STREAM(S) USED IN EXPERT ASSESSMENT We analysed Chlorophyll a, Zooplankton biomass and Fish larval data from the IMOS National Reference Stations, see Eriksen et al. (2019) for detailed methodology for Zooplankton, Davies & Sommerville (2020) for Chlorophyll a and larval fish methodologies). ---------------------------------------- 2021 SOE ASSESSMENT SUMMARY [see attached Expert Assessment for full details] • 2021 • Assessment grade: Good Assessment trend: Stable Confidence grade: Limited evidence or limited consensus Confidence trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus Comparability: N/A • 2016 • N/A • 2011 • N/A ---------------------------------------- CHANGES SINCE 2016 SOE ASSESSMENT not previously assessed

Lineage Statement: QUALITY OF DATA USED IN THE ASSESSMENT IMOS data used in this assessment are the only time series information available in Australia suitable for this analysis. Before the introduction of IMOS, this assessment would not have been possible. Collecting and counting zooplankton data in IMOS adheres to strict quality control protocols (Eriksen et al. 2019). All data are collected under Ocean Best Practices, the BGC manual is published in Frontiers OBP repository (Davies & Sommerville 2020), https://repository.oceanbestpractices.org/handle/11329/1490.

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Notes Credit
Peer reviews of this assessment were provided by: Kerrie Swadling (IMAS, UTAS)

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