The Influence of Geomorphology and Sedimentary Processes on Shallow-water Benthic Habitat Distribution: Esperance Bay, Western Australia

The mapping of seabed environments is fundamental to successful fisheries management and environmental monitoring, however, there is an emerging need to better characterise habitats based upon appropriate physical parameters. In this study, relationships between seabed geomorphology and the distribution of benthic habitats were examined using multibeam sonar, underwater video, predicted wave energy, and sediment data for Esperance Bay, part of the Recherche Archipelago. This shallow (<50 m), high energy, biogenic sediment dominated environment is located in temperate southwestern Australia. Exposure to wave energy appears to determine the distribution of unconsolidated substrate, and is the most useful regional scale predictor of rhodolith and seagrass habitats. Although they are intermittently smothered by mobile sediments, limestone reefs provide habitat for a wide range of sessile organisms, even in very high wave exposure environments. The distribution of rhodolith beds is related to poorly sorted sediments that contain high gravel, mud, and CaCO3 percentages. Our results reveal that in the Recherche Archipelago, wave abrasion coupled with localised sediment transport and accumulation play a major role in increasing the diversity of inner shelf benthic habitats. This highlights the value of assessing geomorphic processes in order to better understand the distribution and structure of benthic habitats.

Simple

Identification info

Date (Publication)
2007-01-01T00:00:00
Citation identifier
Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/69508

Citation identifier
Digital Object Identifier/http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2006.10.008

Cited responsible party
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Author

Ryan, D.A.

 1
Author

Brooke, B.P.

 2
Author

Collins, L.B.

 3
Author

Kendrick, G.A.

 4
Author

Baxter, K.J.

 5
Author

Bickers, A.N.

 6
Author

Siwabessy, P.J.W.

 7
Author

Pattiaratchi, C.B.

 8
Point of contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Custodian

EGD
Owner

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Custodian

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

 Voice
Topic category
  • Geoscientific information

Extent

N
S
E
W


Maintenance and update frequency
Unknown
Keywords

  • External Publication

  • Scientific Journal Paper

Theme

  • sedimentology

  • carbonate

  • marine

Keywords

  • AU-WA

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

  • Earth Sciences

Keywords

  • Published_External

Resource constraints

Title

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

Alternate title

CC-BY

Edition

4.0

Website

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

Access constraints
License
Use constraints
License

Resource constraints

Title

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

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

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

Classification
Unclassified
Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Distribution Information

Distributor contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Distributor

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

 Voice
OnLine resource

Link to Publication

Link to Publication

Resource lineage

Statement

Unknown

Hierarchy level
Non geographic dataset
Other

External Publication

Description

Source data not available.

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-edb8-7506-e044-00144fdd4fa6

Title

GeoNetwork UUID

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

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

 Voice

Type of resource

Resource scope
Document
Name

nonGeographicDataset

Alternative metadata reference

Title

Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with

uuid

Citation identifier
eCatId/69508

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/a05f7892-edb8-7506-e044-00144fdd4fa6

Date info (Revision)
2018-04-22T08:43:38
Date info (Creation)
2009-09-10T00:00:00

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

 
 

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W


Keywords

carbonate marine sedimentology

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