This is a record for the data collected from surveys of shallow reef habitats at Ashmore Reef and Mermaid Reef Marine Parks in 2022. The surveys were carried out to provide Parks Australia with an understanding of the impacts of foreign fishing on the abundance and diversity of sea cucumbers in shallow reef ecosystems and to inform future monitoring and management. UVC Reef Life Survey method and ROV345 sites were surveyed across 5 habitat types: intertidal reef; shallow subtidal lagoon; deep lagoon; western reef edge and eastern reef edge.Data on percent habitat type was for Mermaid Reef transects only

These data were collected to design and test an eDNA sampler that captures an integrated eDNA sample over the length of a deep-water transect. The data were generated as part of a feasibility study conducted during a RV Investigator voyage (IN2022_V09) to the Gascoyne Marine Park region in northwest of Western Australia led by Chief Scientist John Keesing in December 2022.

Benthic video collected during the MNF Investigator voyage IN2018_V06, sampling seamounts off Tasmania, were annotated for the matrix-forming stony coral Solenosmilia variabilis (Metadata description in MarLIN). The present data set is a sub-set of the collection, processed for analyses presented in Williams et al. 2020, Frontiers in Marine Science (doi: 10.3389/fmars.2020.00187), where a method of identifying Vulnerable Marine Ecosystem (VME) habitats was applied and tested, using these data.

Project Overview: A range of solutions will be required to reach globally agreed emissions reductions targets for carbon dioxide (CO2). Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is part of the suite of technologies that will contribute to lowering atmospheric emissions of CO2 from Australia's energy system. There are a wide variety of technologies at various stages of technical and commercial readiness, with more development underway for cost effective CO2 capture and storage. Our research will provide new knowledge to inform cost-efficient measurement, monitoring and verification (MMV) of the environment of CCS projects in coastal waters. --o-- Brief Description: A series of CTD casts were completed using a SBE25plus CTD profile combined with Seabird ECO55 water sampler accommodating six Niskin bottles. Water samples were taken from each cast using pre-programmed depths appropriate to the total water column depth which varied from 14 -20 m. Niskin bottles were closed on the down cast due to limitations of the firing software. The water temperature ranged between 18 and 20 degrees. Oxygen and nutrient samples were taken from most of the successful Niskin bottles samples. The first three CTD casts were found to have the wrong time stamp as the CTD had been initialised in local time. This was corrected to UTC and the metadata for the casts updated. Relevant component details: make, model, serial number, firmware version, settings: Sensor | Serial Number SBE25plus | 0251152 Temperature | 03-6206 Conductivity | 04-4632 Pressure | 10654713 Oxygen Sensor (SBE 63) | 1669 Wet labs (ECO-BB ) | BBFL2BAC-1204

The Theme 5.3 study was undertaken to improve our understanding of the spatial and temporal patterns in seagrass composition, abundance and reproductive phenology in the Pilbara region. Key environmental parameters, especially light, that influence seagrass survival and can be altered by dredging were also characterised. From August 2013 to March 2015 (18 months), surveys of seagrass abundance were undertaken in the Exmouth Gulf region. The locations surveyed (South Muiron Island, Bundegi and Exmouth Gulf) encompassed a range in water clarity from clear to turbid. Less frequent surveys were undertaken at other locations in the Pilbara: Thevenard Island, Rosemary Island and Balla. Measurements of seagrass abundance were also obtained from monitoring conducted as part of the dredging and dredge-spoil management plan for Chevron Australia’s Wheatstone Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Project. During each survey measurements were made in the field, photographs were taken or samples were collected in order to measure the following variables: 1. percentage cover of seagrass and other benthos; 2. above- and below-ground biomass, shoot density, leaf length, leaf width and number of flowers; 3. density of seagrass seeds; 4. sediment grain size; 5. stable isotope ratios (13C and 15N) of seagrass leaf tissue; and 6. water quality (light, conductivity, temperature, salinity, nutrients, suspended particulate matter and chlorophyll).

The objective of Project 5.4 was to determine whether recovery of seagrass in the Pilbara following disturbance is by sexual (recruitment from seeds) or asexual (vegetative regrowth from rhizome extension) means, and the relative importance of each, thereby determining the capacity, timeframes and mechanisms of recovery from light and sediment deposition effects. This was achieved through an experiment in which plots cleared of seagrass were enclosed by a barrier or left open, and changes in cover were compared to unmanipulated control (and procedural control) plots. The experiment was done at two sites, a 2-m deep (the 'shallow' site) and a 6-m deep (the 'deep' site). The experiment was intended to run for 6 months, but after 5 months disturbance caused by Tropical Cyclone (TC) Olwyn reduced seagrass cover at both sites, and removed the experimental apparatus at the shallow site. Nevertheless, results yielded by surveys prior to TC Olwyn unambiguously showed strong evidence for recovery through vegetative regrowth (full recovery in cleared plots with no barriers, plus a pattern of increasing cover from the edges of the plots) and no evidence for recovery through recruitment from seeds (no seagrass was ever recorded in any cleared plot with a barrier). The main species of seagrass present was Halophila ovalis, which is widespread throughout northwestern Australia. The transferability of inferences from this study to other places in the Pilbara is hampered by the substantial variation in abundance and species composition from place to place - different species might have different mechanisms of recovery. The nature of the experimental disturbance (complete removal of all seagrass, including roots and rhizomes) is a reasonable facsimile of a severe dredging-induced disturbance, but the spatial extent of the experimental clearances (~0.5 m2) is orders of magnitude smaller than the spatial extents of dredging-induced mortality induced elsewhere: it is plausible that recovery of patches within meadows is more easily achieved through rhizome extension than recovery that encompasses spatial extents of hectares.

The physical oceanographic environment of the morphologically complex Kimberley coast is globally unique with deep and narrow inlets and extensive island archipelagos interacting with a macrotidal regime. This project investigated the processes controlling physical variability (e.g. circulation and temperature variability) within the Kimberley’s shallow water macrotidal reef environments, including transport and exchange rates between reef and coastal waters. An intensive field study are conducted at Tallon Island between 22nd March 2014 to 13 April 2014. A number of moorings were placed on the tidal reef flats. Consisting of Acoustic Doppler Velocimeters, temperature loggers and an Acoustic Wave and Current Meter (AWAC) An RTK bathymetry survey was also conducted over a number of days during the field program. A weather station was also deployed on a scaffold tower in the intertidal area. Weather station measured was used to measure wind speed, air temperature, solar radiation and barometric pressure. Data associated with this metadata record pertains to 4 Nortek Vectors deployed on the reef and a Weather station mounted on in the lagoon. Data associated with other components of the research is located

Field data from radar and video from the Nearshore Research Facility. This data is used for verifying models used to predict nearshore beach morphology. Researchers around the world are investigating new ways to extract data from these data sets. We are keen to make this data available to the wider research community.