National On-shelf Seascapes with 13 Classes  

Authors / CoAuthors

Whiteway, T.

Abstract

National seascapes describing a layer of ecologically-meaningful biophysical properties that spatially represent potential seabed habitats have been derived for the Australian margin and adjacent seafloor. Seascapes were derived separately for the shelf and off-shelf regions due to different data availability. A total of 13 and 9 seascapes were derived for the on-shelf and off-shelf regions, respectively, using the unsupervised ISOCLASS classification in the software package ERMapper. Generally, the on-shelf seascapes divide into two broad latitudinal groups. The southern group (seascapes 1-7) is characterised by sandy, cooler environments relative to the northern group (seascape 9-13) which is characterised by muddier, warmer environments. Seascape 8 occurs predominantly on the west and east margins, separating the two groups. Off-shelf seascapes lack a distinct latitudinal pattern and their distribution is more related to seafloor temperature as a function of depth. For the deep-sea regions on the southern and western margins the seascapes are principally defined by rugosity and primary production. For other areas off-shelf seascape distribution is more complex and related to bathymetry and slope (rugosity).

Product Type

dataset

eCat Id

69147

Contact for the resource

Keywords

• GIS DatasetThematic

( Theme )

• habitat

( Theme )

• GIS

( Theme )

• marine

• AU

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

• Earth Sciences

• Published_Internal

Publication Date

2009-01-01T00:00:00

Creation Date

Security Constraints

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem    

Classification - unclassified

Legal Constraints

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence    

Access - restricted

Use - license

Status

Purpose

Maintenance Information

notPlanned

Topic Category

geoscientificInformation

Series Information

Lineage

Benthic biophysical grids were combined using the ISOclass unsupervised classification methodology in ERMapper and ArcGIS. For a full description of the methodology and discussion of iterative results refer to reports: - Whiteway, T., Heap, A.D., Lucieer, V., Hinde, A., Ruddick, R. & Harris, P.T. (2007). Seascapes of the Australia Margin and Adjacent Sea Floor: Methodology and Results. Geoscience Australia, Record 2007/11 ISBN: 9781921236389, 133pp - Hinde, A., Whiteway, T., Ruddick, R. & Heap, A.D. (2007). Seascapes of the Australian Margin and adjacent sea floor: Keystroke Methodology. Geoscience Australia, Record 2007/10 ISBN: 978192123372, 56pp. The final input Variables used in this classification included (and were sourced from): - Bathymetry scaled (Geoscience Australia) - Effective Disturbance scaled (Geoscience Australia) - %Gravel (Geoscience Australia) - %Mud (Geoscience Australia) - Primary Productivity scaled (CSIRO) - Sea Floor Temperature (extrapolated, scaled (CSIRO) - Slope scaled (Geoscience Australia)

Parent Information

Extents

[-44.1437, -8.8937, 112.2487, 153.9487]

Reference System

Spatial Resolution

Service Information

Associations

Downloads and Links

Source Information

Source data not available.