The Magnitude and Frequency of Combined Flow Bed Shear Stress as a Measure of Exposure on the Australian Continental Shelf

Benthic habitats on the continental shelf are strongly influenced by exposure to the effects of surface ocean waves, and tidal, wind and density driven ocean currents. These processes combine to induce a combined flow bed shear stress upon the seabed which can mobilise sediments or directly influence organisms disturbing the benthic environment. Output from a suite of numerical models predicting these oceanic processes have been utilised to compute the combined flow bed shear stresses over the entire Australian continental shelf for an 8-year period (March 1997- February 2005 inclusive). To quantify the relative influence of extreme or catastrophic combined flow bed shear stress events and more frequent events of smaller magnitude, three methods of classifying the oceanographic levels of exposure are presented:


1. A spectral regionalisation method,

2. A method based on the shape of the probability distribution function, and

3. A method which assesses the balance between the amount of work a stress does on the seabed, and the frequency with which it occurs.


Significant relationships occur between the three regionalisation maps indicating seabed exposure to oceanographic processes and physical sediment properties (mean grain size and bulk carbonate content), and water depth, particularly when distinction is made between regions dominated by high-frequency (diurnal or semi-diurnal) events and low-frequency (synoptic or annual) events. It is concluded that both magnitude and frequency of combined-flow bed shear stresses must be considered when characterising the benthic environment. The regionalisation outputs of the Australian continental shelf presented in this study are expected to be of benefit to quantifying exposure of seabed habitats on the continental shelf to oceanographic processes in future habitat classification schemes for marine planning and policy procedures.

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Identification info

Date (Publication)
2006-01-01T00:00:00
Citation identifier
Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/63925

Citation identifier
Digital Object Identifier/http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.csr.2006.03.011

Cited responsible party
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Author

Hemer, M.A.

 1
Point of contact
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EGD
Owner

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
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Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

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  • Geoscientific information

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N
S
E
W


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Unknown
Keywords

  • External Publication

  • Scientific Journal Paper

Theme

  • model

Theme

  • continental margins

Keywords

  • AU

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

  • Earth Sciences

Keywords

  • Published_External

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

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CC-BY

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4.0

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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

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License

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Title

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
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https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

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Unclassified
Language
English
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UTF8

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Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

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OnLine resource

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Non geographic dataset
Other

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Metadata constraints

Title

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification
Unclassified

Metadata

Metadata identifier
urn:uuid/a05f7892-cc70-7506-e044-00144fdd4fa6

Title

GeoNetwork UUID

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8
Contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Point of contact

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

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Type of resource

Resource scope
Non geographic dataset
Name

nonGeographicDataset

Alternative metadata reference

Title

Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with

uuid

Citation identifier
eCatId/63925

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/a05f7892-cc70-7506-e044-00144fdd4fa6

Date info (Revision)
2018-04-22T08:16:45
Date info (Creation)
2005-11-28T00:00:00

Metadata standard

Title

AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-3

Title

Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014

Edition

Version 2.0, September 2018

Citation identifier
https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551

 
 

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N
S
E
W


Keywords

continental margins model

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