Surveys of Octocoral communities, benthic cover and environmental factors on coral reefs of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia (1996 to present)

Brief description

All surveys were carried out by the principal researcher using Rapid Ecological Assessment. The dataset runs from May 1996: in early 2009 comprising 1636 entries from 180 reef locations, spread relatively evenly along and across the whole Great Barrier Reef (GBR). On each reef 1-3 sites were surveyed with up to 5 transects (usually 200-300m long, 1-3m wide for 10-15 minutes) per site at pre-defined depths (1-3m, 3-8m, 8-13m, 13-18m and reef flat). Species recorded: octocorals (soft corals, gorgonians, sea fans, sea whips, sea pens, leather corals, arborescent octocorals, blue coral, stoloniferans), black and wire coral. Note that species are mostly at generic level. Taxa have been matched to the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS). This dataset was sourced on July 2018 from the original DiGIR dataset at OBIS and updated to reflect changes in the OBIS data requirements.