Submarine canyons are highly energetic and dynamic environment. Owing to their abrupt and complex topographies that are contrast to the adjacent shelf and slope, they can generate intense mixing, both horizontally through internal tides and waves and vertically through upwelling and downwelling. Complex hydrodynamic processes and increased food supply in sediment and water column result in elevated primary and secondary production which would favour the development of a highly productive and temporally dynamic food web over the canyons. Consequently, many submarine canyons, especially those incise into continental shelf, are considered as biodiversity hotspots. To better understand the ecosystem functions and ecological processes of marine environment, identification and classification of submarine canyons are needed. This study developed a national-scale submarine canyon classification system for Australian ocean based on canyon's physical characteristics. A hierarchical classification scheme was proposed. At the top level, the submarine canyons were classified into shelf-incising canyons and confined-to-slope canyons. At the lower levels, the canyons were classified on their morphometry, shape and location characteristics separately. Accurate identification of submarine canyons was the critical first step for the success of the proposed canyon classification system. A national bathymetry data at a spatial resolution of 250 metres and a completed set of multibeam bathymetry data at a spatial resolution of 50 metres from all previous multibeam surveys, both published by Geoscience Australia, were used. Hill-shaded layers were generated from which most submarine canyons could be easily identified. The extents of individual canyons, from wall to wall, were manually digitised as a GIS polygon layer. The initial number of canyons was then filtered using the following criteria: - Depth of the canyon head is less than 4000 m, - Depth range between the canyon's head and foot is greater than 600 m, and - Incision of the canyon head is greater than 100 m. At the lower levels, the following metrics were calculated as the inputs to the canyon classifications: - Morphometry metrics: incision depth of the canyon head, standard deviation of the slope gradient (within all cells in a canyon), slope gradient between the canyon head and the canyon foot, and canyon overall rugosity. - Shape metrics: canyon area, number of branches, length/width ratio of the smallest bounding rectangle, border index, compactness and canyon volume. - Location metrics: depth of the canyon head, depth range between the canyon's head and foot, canyon density, distance to coast, distance to the shelf break, incision depth (shelf-incising canyons only), and incision area (shelf-incising canyons only). The hierarchal agglomerative clustering technique was used for the unsupervised classifications. After the filtering, a total of 708 submarine canyons were identified for the entire Australian EEZ. Among these 708 canyons, 134 of them incise into continental shelf; the rest are confined in continental slope. For the shelf-incising canyons, the morphometry, shape and location based classifications all resulted in three classes. Combining the three lower level classifications yielded 15 classes. For the slope-confined canyons, the morphometry, shape and location based classifications resulted in three, four and four classes, respectively. Combining the three lower level classifications yielded 37 classes. GeoHab 2013

A biophysical dispersal model was used to simulate hydrodynamic connectivity among canyons located within Australia's South-west marine region. The results show that exchange among canyons in this area is greatly influenced by the Leeuwin current, transporting larvae in a unidirectional manner around Cape Leeuwin, and continuing eastwards along the Great Australian Bight. Larvae within canyons tend to remain within them, however if they are transported above the canyon walls, they then have the opportunity to be transported significant distances (thousands of kilometres). Analysis of the variability in connectivity patterns reveals concentrated flow near the shelf break, with increasing levels of variability leading offshore from the canyons. While the average potential flow distance and duration between canyons were approximately 550 kilometres and 33 days respectively, the average realized flow distance and duration were approximately 30 kilometres and 6 days respectively. This study provides the first consideration of connectivity among submarine canyons and will help improve management of these features by providing a better understanding of larval movement, transboundary exchange and the potential spread of invasive species.

Acoustic remote sensing is the only effective technique to investigate deep sea bottom. Modern high-frequency multibeam echosounders transmit and receive backscatter signals from hundreds of narrow-angle beams which enlighten small footprints on the seabed. They can produce bathymetry and backscatter data with a spatial resolution around 2% of water depth, which enables us to map the seabed with great detail and accuracy. After calibration, the backscatter intensity is largely controlled by three seabed physical properties: the acoustic impedance contrast (often called hardness), apparent interface roughness (relative to acoustic frequency) and volume inhomogeneity [3, 4, 7]. These seabed physical properties are directly related to sediment grain size characteristics at the sedimentary areas. Studies showed that backscatter intensity had a moderate and positive correlation with sediment mean grain size [1, 3, 6]. Also, backscatter intensity was found to be positively correlated with coarse fractions and inversely correlated with finer fractions [2, 5, 6]. Other sediment grain size properties, especially sorting may also play important roles in the backscatter-sediment relationship [3, 5, 6]. The backscatter-sediment relationship, however, is complex in nature. Research is needed to better understand how acoustic sound interacts with sediment. This study aims to explore this relationship using a set of high quality sediment and multibeam backscatter data, and a robust spatial modelling technique. The co-located sediment and multibeam data were collected from four different areas of Australian margin which represent different sedimentary environments. Five hundred sixty-four sediment grab samples were taken from these survey areas. They were analysed in laboratory using the same procedure to generate grain size properties of %gravel, %sand, %mud, mean grain size, sorting, skewness and kurtosis. The multibeam data were collected using Kongsberg's 300 kHz EM3002 system. The raw multibeam backscatter was processed using the CMST-GA MB Process v8.11.02.1 software developed by Geoscience Australia and the Centre for Marine Science and Technology at Curtin University of Technology. As a result, the backscatter mosaics from incidence angles of 1o to 60o, at an interval of 1o, were generated. The backscatter intensity values from these 60 incidence angles were extracted for all of the sediment samples. The machine learning model Random Forest Decision Tree (RFDT) was used to investigate the backscatter-sediment relationship. The seven sediment grain size properties were the explanatory variables. The response variable was the backscatter intensity from each incidence angle. The model performance was evaluated using 10-fold cross-validation. For incidence angles between 1o and 42o, the RFDT models achieved fairly good performance, with a percentage of variance explained around 70% (Figure 1). The model performance gradually decreased for the outer beam range (incidence angle > 42o). Mud content was consistently identified as the most important explanatory variable to the backscatter strength. The second most important explanatory was usually sediment mean grain size. The RFDT models were also able to generate predicted response curves to quantitatively investigate the relationships between the important explanatory variables and individual response variables. The predicted relationship between %mud and the acoustic backscatter intensity is shown in Figure 2. This indicates a negative but non-linear relationship, with the increase of mud content in the sediment, the backscatter intensity decreases. This finding is consistent with that of previous studies [2, 5, 6]. Fine sediment with high mud content not only is soft (e.g., low impedence contrast) but also has high acoustic penetration (e.g., high attenudation in sediment), which naturally incurs low backcatter return

As part of Geoscience Australia's commitment towards the National Environmental Programme's Marine Biodiversity Hub, we have developed a fully four-dimensional (3D x time) Lagrangian biophysical dispersal model to simulate the movement of marine larvae over large, topographically complex areas. The model operates by fusing the results of data-assimilative oceanographic models (e.g. BLUELink, HYCOM, ROMS) with individual-based particle behaviour. The model uses parallel processing on Australia's national supercomputer to handle large numbers of simulated larvae (on the order of several billion), and saves positional information as points within a relational database management system (RDBMS). The model was used to study Australia's northwest marine region, with specific attention given to connectivity patterns among Australia's north-western Commonwealth Marine Reserves and Key Ecological Features (KEFs). These KEFs include carbonate terraces, banks and reefs on the shelf that support diverse benthic assemblages of sponges and corals, and canyons that extend from the shelf edge to the continental slope and are potential biodiversity hotspots. We will show animations of larval movement near canyons within the Gascoyne CMR; larval dispersal probability clouds partitioned by depth and time; as well as matrices of connectivity values among features of interest. We demonstrate how the data can be used to identify connectivity corridors in marine environments, and how the matrices can be analysed to identify key connections within the network. Information from the model can be used to inform priorities for monitoring the performance of reserves through examining net contributions of different reserves (i.e. are they sources or sinks), and studying changes in connectivity structure through adding and removing reserve areas.

Fisheries groups worldwide are concerned that seismic operations negatively affect catch rates within a given area, although there is a lack of field-based scientific evidence. In southeast Australia, marine seismic surveys have been blamed for mass mortalities of benthic invertebrates including the commercial scallop Pecten fumatus. Geoscience Australia conducted a 2-D seismic survey in this region in April 2015, thereby presenting an opportunity to conduct field-based experiments investigating the potential impacts on marine organisms. Moored hydrophones recorded noise before and during the seismic survey. An Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) was used to evaluate the effectiveness of seafloor images to support scallop monitoring. In addition, more traditional sampling was undertaken using a commercial scallop dredge from which a variety of biological and biochemical variables were analysed. The AUVs and dredge were deployed at three time periods (before the seismic survey, 2 months after seismic operations ceased, 10 months after seismic operations ceased), although poor-quality AUV images acquired before the survey precluded the analysis of these data. The highest sound exposure level recorded by the hydrophones was 146 dB re 1 µPa2s at 51 m water depth, at a distance of 1.4 km from the airguns. Commercial scallops were not abundant in the study area, and analysis of AUV images revealed no differences in commercial scallop types (live, clapper, dead shell, other) between experimental and control zones. Similarly, analysis of dredged scallops shows no detectable impact due to seismic activity on shell size, meat size and condition, gonad size and condition, and biochemical indices. Both AUV and dredging data showed strong spatial patterns, with significant differences between sites. Our study confirms previous work showing no evidence of immediate mortality on scallops in the field, and it expands this to include no evidence of long-term or sub-lethal effects. Negative impacts are currently confined to laboratory settings with unrealistic sound exposures. If short-term effects are investigated, we recommend a focus on the underlying mechanisms of potential impacts (i.e. physiological responses), rather than gross metrics such as mortality or size. Physiological responses to airgun sound may not be as immediately obvious as mortality or behavioural responses, but they are equally important to provide early indications of negative effects, as well as to explain the underlying mechanisms behind mortality events and reduced catch.

A fully four-dimensional (3D x time) open source (BSD-3), object-oriented biophysical dispersal model was developed to simulate the movement of marine larvae over semi-continuous surfaces. The model is capable of handling massive numbers of simulated larvae, can accommodate diverse life history patterns and distributions of characteristics, and saves point-level information to a relational database management system. The model was used to study Australia's northwest marine region, with attention given to connectivity patterns among Australia's north-western Commonwealth Marine Reserves (CMRs). This work was supported by the Marine Biodiversity Hub through the Australian Government's National Environmental Research Program (NERP).

Geoscience Australia marine reconnaissance survey TAN0713 to the Lord Howe Rise offshore eastern Australia was completed as part of the Federal Government¿s Offshore Energy Security Program between 7 October and 22 November 2007 using the New Zealand Government¿s research vessel Tangaroa. The survey was designed to sample key, deep-sea environments on the east Australian margin (a relatively poorly-studied shelf region in terms of sedimentology and benthic habitats) to better define the Capel and Faust basins, which are two major sedimentary basins beneath the Lord Howe Rise. Samples recovered on the survey contribute to a better understanding of the geology of the basins and assist with an appraisal of their petroleum potential. They also add to the inventory of baseline data on deep-sea sediments in Australia. The principal scientific objectives of the survey were to: (1) characterise the physical properties of the seabed associated with the Capel and Faust basins and Gifford Guyot; (2) investigate the geological history of the Capel and Faust basins from a geophysical and geological perspective; and (3) characterise the abiotic and biotic relationships on an offshore submerged plateau, a seamount, and locations where fluid escape features were evident. This dataset comprises total oxygen uptake and total carbon fluxes from core incubation experiments. Some relevant publications which pertain to these datasets include: 1. Heap, A.D., Hughes, M., Anderson, T., Nichol, S., Hashimoto, T., Daniell, J., Przeslawski, R., Payne, D., Radke, L., and Shipboard Party, (2009). Seabed Environments and Subsurface Geology of the Capel and Faust basins and Gifford Guyot, Eastern Australia ¿ post survey report. Geoscience Australia, Record 2009/22, 166pp. 2. Radke, L.C. Heap, A.D., Douglas, G., Nichol, S., Trafford, J., Li, J., and Przeslawski, R. 2011. A geochemical characterization of deep-sea floor sediments of the northern Lord Howe Rise. Deep Sea Research II 58: 909-921

A short film describing the processes of bathymetric mapping and side scan sonar, used to gather data within the search area for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Synopsis: The film begins with a brief description of Geoscience Australia's role working with the lead agencies in the search process. It explains that existing satellite data is not detailed enough to assist in the search for MH370 and that more detailed bathymetric surveying is required before an underwater search can commence. The film describes how a bathymetric survey is carried out using sonar systems mounted on a ship's hull. It then shows imagery derived from the bathymetric mapping of the search area. The film then shows how a detailed underwater search is carried out, using the bathymetry as a guide. Animation shows how a towed, submersible vehicle gathers more detailed data while travelling slowly at a height of approximately 100 metres above the sea floor. The animation shows how side scan sonar reveals more detailed information about sea floor features. The film ends with a brief summary of the role of the Australian Government agencies involved in the search. Brief credits follow with a copyright statement and publication information. About the data visualisation: This video contains data visualisation and animation sequences. Bathymetry visualisations are derived from data gathered within the MH370 search area. Side scan sonar visualisations are derived from demonstration data only, not gathered within the MH370 search area. Animation sequences showing ship-mounted bathymetry and towed side-scan sonar are representations only and not to scale. Film production credits: Geoscience Australia Script, Direction: Bobby Cerini, Melinda Holland Edit, Cinematography, Sound: Michael O'Rourke Production Management: Bobby Cerini, Neil Caldwell 3D Data Visualisation, Animation: Neil Caldwell, Michael de Hoog Graphics: Kath Hagan Scientific Advice: Stuart Minchin, Anna Potter, Maggie Tran, Tanya Whiteway, Kim Picard Additional credits: Voiceover: Media Sound Studios Music: 'Namaste' by Jason Shaw, 2013 Animation of Globe: 'Earth in Cycles' by Adriano, 2012 3D Data Visualisation and Animation (ship, bathymetry, side scan, ocean features): Eye Candy Animation Producer: Damian Stocks Creative Director: Rachael Johnson Studio Manager: Jess Burrows Lead Artist: Artur Piwko 3D Artist: Kynan Stevenson

Geoscience Australia marine reconnaissance survey TAN0713 to the Lord Howe Rise offshore eastern Australia was completed as part of the Federal Government's Offshore Energy Security Program between 7 October and 22 November 2007 using the New Zealand Government's research vessel Tangaroa. The survey was designed to sample key, deep-sea environments on the east Australian margin (a relatively poorly-studied shelf region in terms of sedimentology and benthic habitats) to better define the Capel and Faust basins, which are two major sedimentary basins beneath the Lord Howe Rise. Samples recovered on the survey contribute to a better understanding of the geology of the basins and assist with an appraisal of their petroleum potential. They also add to the inventory of baseline data on deep-sea sediments in Australia. The principal scientific objectives of the survey were to: (1) characterise the physical properties of the seabed associated with the Capel and Faust basins and Gifford Guyot; (2) investigate the geological history of the Capel and Faust basins from a geophysical and geological perspective; and (3) characterise the abiotic and biotic relationships on an offshore submerged plateau, a seamount, and locations where fluid escape features were evident. This dataset comprises inorganic element concentrations in seabed sediments. Some relevant publications which pertain to these datasets include: 1. Heap, A.D., Hughes, M., Anderson, T., Nichol, S., Hashimoto, T., Daniell, J., Przeslawski, R., Payne, D., Radke, L., and Shipboard Party, (2009). Seabed Environments and Subsurface Geology of the Capel and Faust basins and Gifford Guyot, Eastern Australia - post survey report. Geoscience Australia, Record 2009/22, 166pp. 2. Radke, L.C. Heap, A.D., Douglas, G., Nichol, S., Trafford, J., Li, J., and Przeslawski, R. 2011. A geochemical characterization of deep-sea floor sediments of the northern Lord Howe Rise. Deep Sea Research II 58: 909-921

Geoscience Australia marine reconnaissance survey TAN0713 to the Lord Howe Rise offshore eastern Australia was completed as part of the Federal Government's Offshore Energy Security Program between 7 October and 22 November 2007 using the New Zealand Government's research vessel Tangaroa. The survey was designed to sample key, deep-sea environments on the east Australian margin (a relatively poorly-studied shelf region in terms of sedimentology and benthic habitats) to better define the Capel and Faust basins, which are two major sedimentary basins beneath the Lord Howe Rise. Samples recovered on the survey contribute to a better understanding of the geology of the basins and assist with an appraisal of their petroleum potential. They also add to the inventory of baseline data on deep-sea sediments in Australia. The principal scientific objectives of the survey were to: (1) characterise the physical properties of the seabed associated with the Capel and Faust basins and Gifford Guyot; (2) investigate the geological history of the Capel and Faust basins from a geophysical and geological perspective; and (3) characterise the abiotic and biotic relationships on an offshore submerged plateau, a seamount, and locations where fluid escape features were evident. This dataset comprises organic carbon and nitrogen concentrations and isotopes in the upper 2 cm of seabed sediments. Some relevant publications which pertain to these datasets include: 1. Heap, A.D., Hughes, M., Anderson, T., Nichol, S., Hashimoto, T., Daniell, J., Przeslawski, R., Payne, D., Radke, L., and Shipboard Party, (2009). Seabed Environments and Subsurface Geology of the Capel and Faust basins and Gifford Guyot, Eastern Australia - post survey report. Geoscience Australia, Record 2009/22, 166pp. 2. Radke, L.C. Heap, A.D., Douglas, G., Nichol, S., Trafford, J., Li, J., and Przeslawski, R. 2011. A geochemical characterization of deep-sea floor sediments of the northern Lord Howe Rise. Deep Sea Research II 58: 909-921