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  • Report to the National Oceans Office on the production of a consistent, high-quality bathymetric data grid and definition and description of geomorphic units for part of Australia's marine jurisdiction.

  • Geoscience Australia and the National Oceans Office carried out a joint project to produce a consistent, high-quality 9 arc second (0.0025° or ~250m at the equator) bathymetric data grid of those parts of the Australian water column jurisdiction lying between 92º E and 172º E and 8 º S and 60º S. As well as the waters adjacent the continent of Australia and Tasmania, the area selected also covers the area of water column jurisdiction surrounding Macquarie Island, and the Australian Territories of Norfolk Island, Christmas Island, and Cocos (Keeling) Islands. The area selected does not include Australia's marine jurisdiction off the Territory of Heard and McDonald Islands and the Australian Antarctic Territory.

  • Hydrogeological map data for research and analysis applications, most commonly in GIS systems. Georeferenced, attributed, GIS vector format data of hydrogeological map information at all scales.

  • The collection consists of field, processed and navigation seismic data plus acquisition processing and interpretation reports. The collection is derived from the marine seismic field programs undertaken by Geoscience Australia, Australian Geological Survey Organisation (AGSO) and Bureau of Mineral Resources (BMR) since the 1980s. Data used by petroleum industry for exploration, GA for frontier petroleum programs and academia for research. 80% of data requests from industry.

  • The purpose of this investigation was to collate previously disparate information on near-pristine estuaries and make it widely available for use by managers, researchers, policy makers and the general public. This information was acquired through scientific articles, reports, conference proceedings, government agencies, grey literature, websites, expert advice and anecdotal observation and was summarised both on a state-by-state basis and at the national level, with emphasis on current knowledge and management.

  • The collection consists of seabed samples collected by Geoscience Australia and other organizations since the 1950s. Samples consist of various shallow cores types, rocks derived from dredging, and sea bed sediments collected by grab and dredge methods. A large proportion of samples are refrigerated.

  • This dataset provides the spatially continuous data of seabed mud content (sediment fraction < 63 µm) expressed as a weight percentage ranging from 0 to 100%, presented in 0.01 decimal degree resolution raster format. The dataset covers the Australian continental EEZ, including seabed surrounding Tasmania. It does not include areas surrounding Macquarie Island, and the Australian Territories of Norfolk Island, Christmas Island, and Cocos (Keeling) Islands or Australia's marine jurisdiction off of the Territory of Heard and McDonald Islands and the Australian Antarctic Territory. This dataset supersedes previous predictions of sediment mud content for the Australian Margin with demonstrated improvements in accuracy. Accuracy of predictions varies based on density of underlying data and level of seabed complexity. Artefacts occur in this dataset as a result of insufficient samples in relevant regions. This dataset is intended for use at national and regional scales. The dataset may not be appropriate for use at local scales in areas where sample density is insufficient to detect local variation in sediment properties. To obtain the most accurate interpretation of sediment distribution in these areas, it is recommended that additional samples be collected and interpolations updated.

  • In order to design a representative network of high seas marine protected areas (MPAs), an acceptable scheme is required to classify the benthic bioregions of the oceans. Given the lack of sufficient biological information to accomplish this task, we used a multivariate statistical method with 6 biophysical variables (depth, seabed slope, sediment thickness, primary production, bottom water dissolved oxygen and bottom temperature) to objectively classify the ocean floor into 11 different categories, comprised of 53,713 separate polygons, that we have termed "seascapes". Validation of the seascape classification was carried out by comparing the seascapes with an existing map of seafloor geomorphology, and by GIS analysis of the number of separate polygons and perimeter/area ratio. We conclude that seascapes, derived using a multivariate statistical approach, are biophysically meaningful subdivisions of the ocean floor and can be expected to contain different biological associations, in as much as different geomorphological units do the same. Our study illustrates how the identification of potential sites for high seas marine protected areas can be accomplished by GIS analysis of seafloor geomorphic and seascape classification maps. Using this approach, maps of seascape and geomorphic heterogeneity were generated in which heterogeneity hot-spots identify themselves as MPA candidates. The use of computer-aided mapping tools removes subjectivity in the MPA design process and provides greater confidence to stakeholders that an unbiased result has been achieved.

  • This is a compilation of Seabed and Habitat Mapping Publications 2008 - 2010: GA Record 2008_20.pdf Vlaming Sub-Basin and Mentelle Basin: Environmental Summary GA Record 2008_23.pdf A Review of Spatial Interpolation Methods for Environmental Scientists GA Record 2009_02.pdf Carnarvon Shelf Survey Post-Survey Report GA Record 2009_09.pdf Ceduna Sub-basin: Environmental Summary GA Record 2009_10.pdf Mapping and characterising soft sediment habitats, and evaluating physical variables as surrogates of biodiversity in Jervis Bay, NSW GA Record 2009_12.pdf Temporal and fine-scale variation in the biogeochemistry of Jervis Bay GA Record 2009_13.pdf Review of Ten Key Ecological Features (KEFs) in the Northwest Marine Region GA Record 2009_22.pdf Seabed Environments and Subsurface Geology of the Capel and Faust basins and Gifford Guyot,Eastern Australia GA Record 2009_26.pdf Deep Sea Lebensspuren: Biological Features on the Seafloor of the Eastern and Western Australian Margin GA Record 2009_38.pdf Frontier basins of the west Australian continental margin: post-survey report of marine reconnaissance and geological sampling survey GA2476 GA Record 2009_42.pdf A Review of Surrogates for Marine Benthic Biodiversity GA Record 2009_43.pdf Southeast Tasmania Temperate Reef Survey Post-Survey Report GA Record 2010_09.pdf Seabed Environments of the Eastern Joseph Bonaparte Gulf, Northern Australia

  • Seascapes describing a layer of ecologically meaningful biophysical variable that spatially represent potential seabed habitats have been derived for the Australian margin and adjacent seabed in a new analysis of existing biophysical data. A total of 13 seascapes were derived for the continental shelf and nine seascapes for regions beyond the continental shelf using the unsupervised ISOCLASS classification in the software package ERMapper. The ecological significance of the seascapes is assessed at the national, regional and local scale using existing biological data. Options and avenues for future development are also described.