The ecology and morphology of sponges and octocorals in the northeastern Joseph Bonaparte Gulf

The Joseph Bonaparte Gulf (JBG) is an offshore area in northern Australia, with active petroleum exploration and infrastructure development. The Van Diemen Rise, an area of raised banks and channels in the northeastern region of the JBG, has been proposed for protection as part of the Oceanic Shoals Commonwealth Marine Reserve. However, baseline information for much of this area is lacking, including spatial and environmental patterns of biological communities. This study uses still imagery of the sea floor in four study areas across the Van Diemen Rise, collected during two seabed mapping surveys conducted by Geoscience Australia and the Australian Institute of Marine Science, in 2009 and 2010. Based on these analyses benthic communities are characterised, and important species and morphological groups are compared with a number of abiotic variables. In so doing, a preliminary assessment is given as to which abiotic variables make the most appropriate surrogates for characterising benthic communities in the region. A number of variables are found to correlate significantly and strongly with some of the biological groups determined in this study. Pheophytin, Si/Al and mud content correlate with the large habitat forming species Mopsella sp., Ianthella sp. and Xestospongia sp. respectively. Backscatter signals from multibeam sonar surveys correlate very strongly with depth and also to some degree with a number of the functional growth forms of sponges. Based on the positive results of this preliminary data investigation, it is recommended that non-linear modelling and robust multivariate analyses be applied to the data set to investigate more complex relationship. This study provides baseline information on the ecology and morphology of key habitat-forming organisms in the northeastern Joseph Bonaparte Gulf which will be facilitate marine monitoring programs for reserve management and environmental impact assessments for industry activity.

Simple

Identification info

Date (Publication)
2012-01-01T00:00:00
Citation identifier
Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/74119

Cited responsible party
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Publisher

Geoscience Australia

 Canberra
Author

Kelly, T.

 1
Author

Przeslawski, R.

 2
Name

Record

Issue identification

2012/067

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
Not planned

Resource format

Title

Product data repository: Various Formats

Website

Data Store directory containing the digital product files

Data Store directory containing one or more files, possibly in a variety of formats, accessible to Geoscience Australia staff only for internal purposes

Keywords

  • GA Publication

  • Record

Theme

  • marine biodiversity

Theme

  • marine survey

Theme

  • mapping

Theme

  • marine

Theme

  • NERP

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

Download the Record (pdf)

Download the Record (pdf)

Distribution format

  • pdf

Resource lineage

Statement

Unknown

Hierarchy level
Non geographic dataset
Other

GA 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/c0ac0afb-7c1f-47b1-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

GA Record

Alternative metadata reference

Title

Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with

uuid

Citation identifier
eCatId/74119

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/c0ac0afb-7c1f-47b1-e044-00144fdd4fa6

Date info (Revision)
2018-04-20T06:11:19
Date info (Creation)
2012-05-23T00:00:00

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

NERP mapping marine marine biodiversity marine survey

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Access to the portal

Associated resources

Not available