Full description
Habitats serve a variety of functions on the North West Shelf (NWS). They support the life history stages of a diverse suite of tropical species including commercially harvested ones. In addition to natural disturbance regimes, habitats are altered in response to the sectoral uses, which in turn affects the distribution and life histories of species. Habitats thus serve as the nexus linking species with uses and natural disturbance, and different habitats serve different purposes at various stages of the life history of a species. A detailed understanding of habitats, at least at the structural level, is thus a prerequisite for a more comprehensive understanding of ecological structure and functions on the North West Shelf.This component of the North West Shelf Joint Environmental Management Study (NWSJEMS) aimed to collate and integrate data on habitats for the region of the North West Shelf extending from North West Cape to Port Hedland and from the coast to the 200 m isobath. The three main activities of the study were: Development of an integrated collection of information on habitats of the North West Shelf, including expert information; Application of the CSIRO Habitat Classification Framework to the data to determine the spatial nesting and structuring of habitat units on the North West Shelf; and Provision of the habitat structure classification for input into other models developed within NWSJEMS.
This record describes data of key benthic marine ecosystems and habitats. These maps and descriptions of their component attributes were designed to assist the process modelling of the ecosystem and impacts of uses, as well as directly supporting planning and management by Western Australian agencies and industries.
Lineage
Maintenance and Update Frequency: notPlannedCreated: 06 2008
Modified: 11 09 2017
Data time period: 2000-07-01 to 2007-06-30
text: westlimit=114.00; southlimit=-24.00; eastlimit=122.00; northlimit=-17.00
User Contributed Tags
Login to tag this record with meaningful keywords to make it easier to discover
DATA ACCESS - This OGC WFS service returns the data (NW Shelf Ecosystem Characterisation) in Shapefile format (SHAPE-ZIP)
MAP - NW Shelf Ecosystem Characterisation (seamap:SeamapAus_WA_NWShelf_ecosystems)
uri :
https://geoserver.imas.utas.edu.au/geoserver/seamap/wms
(REPORT - Ecosystem characterisation of Australia’s North West Shelf. Technical Report No. 12)
uri :
https://www.cmar.csiro.au/nwsjems/reports/NWSJEMS_TR12.pdf
(REPORT - North West Shelf Joint Environmental Management Study. Final Report)
uri :
https://www.cmar.csiro.au/nwsjems/reports/NWSJEMS_final.pdf
(Original metadata record [AODN catalogue])
global : 4739e4b0-4dba-4ec5-b658-02c09f27ab9a
- global : 516811d7-cd33-207a-e0440003ba8c79dd