Australia Marine Ecosystem Boundaries from National Bioregionalisation

A National Oceans Office project defines ecosystem boundaries across Australia's ocean territory. The bioregionalisation illustrates the complexity and variability of marine environments to support an ecosystem-based management approach. It is a foundational GIS dataset for marine science and policy.

Use Cases

• Delineate Marine Jurisdiction boundaries for ecosystem-based management planning using the bioregionalisation framework.
• Analyze spatial relationships between defined bioregions and other marine environmental variables for habitat modeling.
• Integrate the Regional classification into broader GIS analyses of Australia's coastal and offshore zones.

Strengths

• Project headed by the authoritative National Oceans Office, ensuring scientific and policy relevance.
• Designed as a National dataset, providing comprehensive coverage of Australia's ocean territory.
• Supports Australia's Oceans Policy commitment, indicating alignment with formal management frameworks.

Limitations

• Data format includes HTML, which may require extraction and conversion for direct GIS use.
• Specific columnar attributes, row counts, and spatial resolutions are not detailed in the available metadata.
• The scientific project methodology from 2005 may not reflect the most current environmental understanding.

Provenance

Source

National Oceans Office, via Geoscience Australia Data.

Collection Method

A major scientific project synthesizing data to define ecosystem boundaries.

Time Range

Project dated 2005.

Freshness

Metadata indicates a last update in 2026, though the core project dates from 2005.

Geography

Australia's ocean territory.