Geoscience Australia carried out marine surveys in Jervis Bay (NSW) in 2007, 2008 and 2009 (GA303, GA305, GA309, GA312) to map seabed bathymetry and characterise benthic environments through colocated sampling of surface sediments (for textural and biogeochemical analysis) and infauna, observation of benthic habitats using underwater towed video and stills photography, and measurement of ocean tides and wavegenerated currents. Data and samples were acquired using the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) Research Vessel Kimbla. Bathymetric mapping, sampling and tide/wave measurement were concentrated in a 3x5 km survey grid (named Darling Road Grid, DRG) within the southern part of the Jervis Bay, incorporating the bay entrance. Additional sampling and stills photography plus bathymetric mapping along transits was undertaken at representative habitat types outside the DRG. jb_n is an ArcINFO grid of northern part of Jervis Bay survey area produced from the processed EM3002 bathymetry data using the CARIS HIPS and SIPS software

Baseline information on biodiversity and habitats is required to manage Australia's northern tropical marine estate. This study aims to develop an improved understanding of seafloor environments of the Timor Sea. Clustering methods were applied to a large dataset comprising physical and geochemical variables which describe organic matter (OM) reactivity/quantity/source and geochemical processes. Infauna data were used to assess different groupings. Clusters based on physical/geochemical data discriminated infauna better than geomorphic features. Major variations amongst clusters included grainsize and a cross-shelf transition in from authigenic-Mn /As enrichments (inner shelf) to authigenic-P enrichment (outer shelf). Groups comprising raised features had the highest reactive OM concentrations (e.g. low chlorin indices and C:N-ratios, and high k) and benthic algal '13C signatures. Surface area normalised OM concentrations higher than continental shelf norms were observed in association with: (i) low -15N, inferring Trichodesmium input; and (ii) pockmarks, which impart bottom-up controls on seabed chemistry and cause inconsistencies between bulk and pigment OM pools. Low Shannon-Wiener diversity occurred in association with low redox and porewater pH and evidence for high energy. Highest beta-diversity was observed at euphotic depths. Geochemical data and clustering methods used here provide insight into ecosystem processes influencing biodiversity patterns in the region.

Benthic marine invertebrates and their planktonic life stages live in a multistressor world where stressor levels are, and will continue to be, exacerbated by global change. Global warming and increased atmospheric CO2 are causing the oceans to warm, decrease in pH and become hypercapnic. These concurrent stressors have strong impacts on biological processes, but little is known about their combined effects on marine invertebrate development. Increasing temperature has a pervasive stimulatory effect on metabolism until lethal levels are reached, whereas hypercapnia can depress metabolism. Ocean acidification is a major threat to calcifying life stages because it decreases carbonate mineral saturation and also exerts a direct pH effect on physiology. Ocean pH, pCO2 and CaCO3 covary and will change simultaneously with temperature, challenging our ability to predict future outcomes for marine biota. The need to consider both ocean warming and acidification is reflected in the recent increase in multifactorial studies of these stressors on development of marine invertebrates. The outcomes and trends in these studies are synthesized here. Different sensitivities of life history stages and species have implications for persistence and community function in a changing ocean. Some species are more resilient than others and may be potential 'winners' in the climate change stakes. For echinoderms where multistressor studies span across life stages, the impacts of pH/pCO2 and warming on benthic-pelagic life cycle phases are assessed. As the ocean will change more gradually over coming decades than in 'future shock' experiments, it is likely that some species may be able to tolerate near future ocean change through acclimatization or adaption.

Geoscience Australia's GEOMACS model was utilised to produce hindcast hourly time series of continental shelf (~20 - 300 m depth) bed shear stress (unit of measure: Pascal, Pa) on a 0.1 degree grid covering the period March 1997 to February 2008 (inclusive). The hindcast data represents the combined contribution to the bed shear stress by waves, tides, wind and densitydriven circulation. Ecological data collected from Torres Strait suggests that bed shear stresses exceeding 0.4 Pa are important in determining the species present (Long, Bode, & Pitcher 1997). Although this data may not be representative of other regions or benthic communities, it has been utilised to calculate two parameters for determining the relationship between shear bed stress and the benthic community. One of the parameters is the total percentage of time the bed shear stress exceeds 0.4 Pa, and this is denoted (Hughes & Harris 2008).

Australia is increasingly recognised as a global hotspot for sponge biodiversity, but there is a large knowledge gap about sponge communities in northern Australia. Such information is particularly important to manage and monitor the Commonwealth Marine Reserves network finalised by the Australian government in November 2012. This study aims to quantify sponge biodiversity of the Van Diemen Rise and eastern Joseph Bonaparte Gulf in northern Australia and to examine spatial and environmental patterns associated with differences in community structure of sponges. Two collaborative surveys were undertaken in 2009 and 2010 as part of the Australian Government's Offshore Energy Security Initiative. Sponges were collected with a benthic sled from 65 sites across a range of geomorphic features (bank, terrace, ridge, plain, valley) and environmental variables (depth, distance offshore, substrate hardness, slope). Approximately 700 sponge specimens were collected and assigned to 283 species, representing three classes, 53 families and 117 genera. Results showed that sponges were positively and significantly related to other taxa in respect to richness and biomass, thus highlighting their important role in habitat provision. Distance offshore and geomorphic features affected community structure, species richness and biomass. In general sponge diversity was highest further offshore and on raised geomorphic features. Sponge assemblages collected from the same bank were more similar than those collected from different banks. There were no strong relationships between sponges and other environmental factors. The current study will help facilitate integrated marine management by providing a baseline species inventory, supporting the listing of carbonate banks of the Van Diemen Rise as a key ecological feature, and highlighting the importance of sponges as habitat providers and potential biological surrogates for monitoring activities.

Geoscience Australia's GEOMACS model was utilised to produce hindcast hourly time series of continental shelf (~20 - 300 m depth) bed shear stress (unit of measure: Pascal, Pa) on a 0.1 degree grid covering the period March 1997 to February 2008 (inclusive). The hindcast data represents the combined contribution to the bed shear stress by waves, tides, wind and densitydriven circulation. The trimmed mean is simply the arithmetic mean calculated excluding a percentage of the highest and lowest values in the distribution. On this occasion the highest and lowest 25% of model observations were excluded for the calculation. The geometric mean was used alongside the trimmed mean to provide a more robust representation of the bulk of the values than the arithmetic mean would have provided (Hughes & Harris 2008).

At the Australian Marine Sciences Association conference held in Canberra in July 2014, a group of scientists and managers engaged in a roundtable discussion to identify areas where linkages could be improved between researchers working on marine population connectivity and managers of marine areas. Population connectivity is the degree of demographic connectedness between populations, indicating the degree to which populations are linked through dispersal and recruitment of organisms, or through gene flow. Connectivity allows organisms and genes to move among different habitats, helping to ensure survival of species by providing increased habitat and reproduction options, and helping to maintain genetic variability. Although connectivity science was used as the focal point of the discussion, the issues discussed are applicable to other topics at the interface of science and management. Here we summarise the key themes and outcomes/recommendations from the discussion.

Geoscience Australia's GEOMACS model was utilised to produce hindcast hourly time series of continental shelf (~20 - 300 m depth) bed shear stress (unit of measure: Pascal, Pa) on a 0.1 degree grid covering the period March 1997 to February 2008 (inclusive). The hindcast data represents the combined contribution to the bed shear stress by waves, tides, wind and densitydriven circulation. Included in the parameters that represent the magnitude of the bulk of the data are the quartiles of the distribution; Q25, Q50 and Q75 (i.e. the values for which 25, 50 and 75 percent of the observations fall below). Q25, or the 0.25 Quartile of the Geomacs output, represents the values for which 25% of the observations fall below (Hughes & Harris 2008).

Understanding the distribution and abundance of sponges and their associated benthic habitats is of paramount importance for the establishment and monitoring of marine reserves. Benthic sleds or trawls can collect specimens for taxonomic and genetic research, but these sampling methods can be too qualititative for many ecological analyses and too destructive for monitoring purposes. Advances in the use of underwater videography and still imagery for biodiversity habitat mapping and modelling have been used within Geoscience Australia to extract data related to sponge biodiversity patterns across three regions. In the new Oceanic Shoals Commonwealth Marine Reserve, sponge morphologies were characterized from still images to locate areas in which biodiversity may be high due to habitat-forming taxa. In the Carnarvon Shelf abundance of a target sponge (Cinachyrella sp.) was quantified from video to investigate relationships between biology and sediment characteristics. Around Lord Howe Island, benthic habitats are being analysed to the national standard of classification using both video and still images. Importantly specialists within ecology, geophysics and spatial statistics work together to integrate biological and physical data to provide unique and meaningful maps of predicted distributions and habitat suitability for key ecological benthic habitats.

We undertook a biological data acquisition program as part of the transit of the R.V. Southern Surveyor between Darwin and Cairns 15-24 October 2012. The overarching aim of this program was to use an ROV and benthic sled to collect benthic marine information and specimens for biodiversity and biodiscovery research in areas previously mapped by Geoscience Australia during survey GA-276, including a bank (Area I) and terrace/hole feature within the proposed Wessel Islands CMR (Area II). This study focuses on sessile invertebrates such as sponges and octocorals due to their ecological importance as habitat providers and their chemical importance as sources of marine natural products and medicines. In less than 24 hours of sampling effort, survey SS2012/t07 resulted in 261 voucher specimens which will be used for biodiversity and natural products research. A total of 49 samples are to be lodged at the ABL, and samples with weights larger than 300 g will be sent to the NCI for screening of active compounds against cancer and HIV. Sponges were the most abundant group collected based on both biomass (~ 139 kg) and number of voucher specimens (93), followed by cnidarians (30 kg, 73 vouchers), particularly hard corals (23 kg, 11 vouchers). As expected the top of the bank in Area I had a seemingly diverse and abundant sessile invertebrate community, with consistent patchy occurrence of sponges, octocorals, and hard corals. The terrace at in Area II supports moderate densities of sponges and octocorals, while the adjacent deep hole at ~ 100 m seems to be covered with muddy gravel and supports scattered mobile and sedentary invertebrates, of which crinoids dominate, as well as skates and numerous small demersal fish.