Tasmanian Kelp Forest Biomass Survey from Aerial Mapping, 1986

A 1986 aerial survey of the east Tasmanian coastline from Musselroe Bay to South East Cape mapped 10 km² of Macrocystis pyrifera kelp forest. The survey estimated a harvestable yield of 12,300 tonnes based on historical cropping records of 5 tons per acre. Data collection involved marking bed outlines on 1:100,000 maps from a light aircraft and digitizing them using Mapinfo.

Use Cases

• Mapping historical kelp forest extent based on aerial survey data.
• Estimating potential biomass yield for harvest planning based on historical per-unit-area figures.
• Analyzing fluctuations in kelp stocks in relation to environmental factors like water temperature and storm damage mentioned in the description.

Strengths

• Provides a specific total area of kelp forest mapped (10 km²).
• Includes a concrete biomass estimate for the surveyed region (12,300 tonnes).
• Documents the survey methodology involving aerial observation and map digitization.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data may reflect geographic and temporal bias inherent to a single 1986 survey.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Aerial survey from a light aircraft, with bed outlines marked on maps and later digitized using Mapinfo.

Time Range

1986

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-23 03:49:28.637343; freshness should be verified.

Geography

East coast of Tasmania, from Musselroe Bay to South East Cape.