Monitoring changes in the spatial distribution and health of biotic habitats requires spatially extensive surveys repeated through time. Although a number of habitat distribution mapping methods have been successful in clear, shallow-water coastal environments (e.g. aerial photography and Landsat imagery) and deeper (e.g. multibeam and sidescan sonar) marine environments, these methods fail in highly turbid and shallow environments such as many estuarine ecosystems. To map, model and predict key biotic habitats (seagrasses, green and red macroalgae, polychaete mounds [Ficopamatus enigmaticus] and mussel clumps [Mytilus edulis]) across a range of open and closed estuarine systems on the south-west coast of Western Australia, we integrated post-processed underwater video data with interpolated physical and spatial variables using Random Forest models. Predictive models and associated standard deviation maps were developed from fine-scale habitat cover data. Models performed well for spatial predictions of benthic habitats, with 79-90% of variation explained by depth, latitude, longitude and water quality parameters. The results of this study refine existing baseline maps of estuarine habitats and highlight the importance of biophysical processes driving plant and invertebrate species distribution within estuarine ecosystems. This study also shows that machine-learning techniques, now commonly used in terrestrial systems, also have important applications in coastal marine ecosystems. When applied to video data, these techniques provide a valuable approach to mapping and managing ecosystems that are too turbid for optical methods or too shallow for acoustic methods.

Demands are being made of the marine environment that threaten to erode the natural, social and economic benefits that human society derives from the oceans. Expanding populations ensure a continuing increase in the variety and complexity of marine based activities - fishing, power generation, tourism, mineral extraction, shipping etc. The two most commonly acknowledged purposes for habitat mapping in the case studies contained in this book are to support government spatial marine planning, management and decision-making and to support and underpin the design of marine protected areas (MPAs; see Ch. 64).

Assessment of mineral potential in the Regional Forest Agreement Areas (RFAs) required collating mineral potential tract maps of individual deposit styles to produce composite, cumulative and weighted composite and cumulative maps. To achieve that an Avenue-script based ArcView extension was created to combine grids of mineral potential tract maps. The grids were combined to generate maps which showed either the highest (weighted or non-weighted) or cumulated (weighted or non-weighted) values. Resources and Advice Decision Support System (RADSS) combines features of the ArcView extension used in mineral potential assessments in RFAs and ASSESS. It is an ArcView extension with a 'Wizard'-like main dialog that leads the user through the process of creating an output. The system has the capacity to combine GIS-layers (raster and vector) to produce various mineral potential and other suitability maps.

This dataset contains species identifications of sponges collected during survey SOL4934 (R.V. Solander, 27 August - 24 September, 2009). Animals were collected from the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf with a benthic sled. Specimens were lodged at Northern Territory Museum on the 26 September 2009. Species-level identifications were undertaken by Belinda Glasby at the Northern Territory Museum and were delivered to Geoscience Australia on the 23 February 2011. See GA Record 2010/09 for further details on survey methods and specimen acquisition. Data is presented here exactly as delivered by the taxonomist, and Geoscience Australia is unable to verify the accuracy of the taxonomic identifications.

Physical sedimentological processes such as the mobilisation and transport of shelf sediments during extreme storm events give rise to disturbances that characterise many shelf ecosystems. The intermediate disturbance hypothesis predicts that biodiversity is controlled by the frequency of disturbance events, their spatial extent and the amount of time required for ecological succession. A review of available literature suggests that periods of ecological succession in shelf environments range from 1 to over 10 years. Physical sedimentological processes operating on continental shelves having this same return frequency include synoptic storms, eddies shed from intruding ocean currents and extreme storm events (cyclones, typhoons and hurricanes). Modelling studies that characterise the Australian continental shelf in terms of bed stress due to tides, waves and ocean currents were used here to create a map of ecological disturbance, defined as occurring when the Shield's parameter exceeds a threshold of 0.25. We also define a dimensionless ecological disturbance ratio (ED) as the rate of ecological succession divided by the recurrence interval of disturbance events. The results illustrate that on the outer part of Australia's southern, wave-dominated shelf the mean number of days between threshold events that the Shield's parameter exceeds 0.25 is several hundred days.

Recently, continental-scale geochemical surveys of Europe and Australia were completed. Thanks to having exchanged internal project standards prior to analysing the samples, we can demonstrate direct comparability between these datasets for 10 major oxides (Al2O3, CaO, Fe2O3, K2O, MgO, MnO, Na2O, P2O5, SiO2 and TiO2), 16 total trace elements (As, Ba, Ce, Co, Cr, Ga, Nb, Ni, Pb, Rb, Sr, Th, V, Y, Zn and Zr), 14 aqua regia extracted elements (Ag, As, Bi, Cd, Ce, Co, Cs, Cu, Fe, La, Li, Mn, Mo and Pb), Loss On Ignition (LOI) and pH. By comparing these new datasets to one another, we can learn lessons about continental-scale controls on soil geochemistry and about critical requirements for global geochemical mapping. Although the median soil compositions of both continents are overall quite similar, the Australian median values are systematically lower, except for SiO2 and Zr. This reflects the generally longer and, locally more intense weathering in Australia (median Chemical Index of Alteration values are 72 and 60% for Australia and Europe, respectively). We found that element concentrations typically span 3 (and up to 5) orders of magnitude on each continent. The comparison of 2 continental geochemical surveys shows that the most critical requirement for global geochemical mapping is good analytical quality. Only where a comprehensive quality control program, including field and laboratory duplicates, internal project standards and Certified Reference Materials, is implemented and documented, are the results credible and comparable with other datasets.

CAML is a five year International Program which will be undertaken as a major activity during the International Polar Year. This project will bring together all known data on Antarctic marine biodiversity and ocean change. The Antarctic Ocean is one of the most sensitive ecosystems in the world. Research undertaken via CAML will produce fascinating images of the Southern Ocean Geoscience Australia's Marine and Coastal Group is contributing expertise in sea floor mapping and sediment core collection to CAML. The Australian Government Antarctic Division is collecting oceanographic data, video footage and sediment cores through hot-water drill holes in the Amery Ice Shelf. The sediment cores are collected using a corer designed and built by Geoscience Australia, and are being analysed by scientists at Geoscience Australia to understand the environmental history beneath this ice shelf. This project has now produced four cores. The only other core ever obtained from beneath an extant ice shelf from under the Ross Ice Shelf in the early 1970s showed no signs of life. However, several Amery cores contain diatom-rich sediments, and one contains a succession of benthic faunas that indicate progressive colonisation of the sub-ice sea floor as ice retreated and currents began to seep nutrients and plankton into the sub-ice shelf cavity.

This dataset contains species identifications of all taxa collected from grabs during survey SOL4934 (R.V. Solander, 27 August - 24 September, 2009). Animals were collected from the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf with a Smith-MacIntyre grab. Echinoderms, molluscs, and worms were identified by taxonomists Tim O'Hara, Richard Willan, and Belinda Glasby, respectively, and lodged at museums. All other taxa were identified to operational taxonomic units by Rachel Przeslawski and lodged at the Australian Museum on the 27 August 2011. See GA Record 2010/09 for further details on survey methods and specimen acquisition.

Geoscience Australia and the CO2CRC have constructed a greenhouse gas controlled release facility at an experimental agricultural station maintained by CSIRO Plant Industry at Ginninderra, Canberra. The facility is designed to simulate surface emissions of CO2 (and other greenhouse gases) from the soil into the atmosphere. CO2 is injected into the soil is via a 120m long slotted HDPE pipe installed horizontally 2m underground. This is fitted with a straddle packer system to partition the well into six CO2 injection chambers with each chamber connected to its own CO2 injection line. CO2 was injected into 5 of the chambers during the first sub-surface release experiment (March - May 2012) and the total daily injection rate was 100 kg/d. A krypton tracer was injected into one of the 5 chambers at a rate of 10 mL/min. Monitoring methods trialled at the site include eddy covariance, atmospheric tomography using a wireless networked array of solar powered CO2 stations, soil flux, soil gas, frequency-domain electromagnetics (FDEM), soil community DNA analysis, and krypton tracer studies (soil gas and air). A summary of the findings will be presented. Paper presented at the 2012 CO2CRC Research Symposium, Sunshine Beach, 27-29 November 2012.

From 1995 to 2000 information from the federal and state governments was compiled for Comprehensive Regional Assessments (CRA), which formed the basis for Regional Forest Agreements (RFA) that identified areas for conservation to meet targets agreed by the Commonwealth Government with the United Nations. These 5 CDs were created as part of GA's contribution to the NE Victoria CRA. CD1 contains ArcView Legends and Projects, data coverages, shapefiles, final Exec. Summary and Minerals Technical Reports, and final figures and maps. CD2 contains final reports, metadata, model descriptions, and all associated maps and figures. CD3 contains Landsat, Magnetic and Radiometric images, AcrInfo grids, and unused ArcInfo AMLs and Graphic files that were intended for map creation. CD4 contains original data supplied by custodians, staff versions of data and projects, and various edited versions of covers and shapefiles. CD5 contains integration data used during Directions report analysis.