Coral Species Survey at Mermaid, Scott, and Seringapatam Reefs, Western Australia

Western Australia's Mermaid, Scott, and Seringapatam Reefs were surveyed for scleractinian coral species. Parks Australia provides this record of a study that recorded 269 species from 57 genera across 14 families, including new distribution records for the region. Multivariate analyses indicated distinct coral communities associated with different reef habitats.

Use Cases

• Modeling species richness patterns based on recorded counts per reef.
• Analyzing community composition differences between reef front, lagoon, and intertidal flat habitats.
• Mapping the distribution of widespread Indo-Pacific coral species mentioned in the description.
• Identifying biogeographic affinities with other regions like Ashmore Reef and Indonesia.

Strengths

• Records a total of 269 scleractinian species from 57 genera.
• Provides specific species counts for four reef locations: Mermaid (211), South Scott (224), North Scott (201), and Seringapatam (159).
• Includes new distribution records, such as one new record for Western Australia.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Freshness should be verified; last updated metadata is from 2026-07-16.

Provenance

Source

Parks Australia, referencing a source publication.

Collection Method

Rapid assessment survey of shallow water coral taxa.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-16 23:34:40.972326

Geography

Mermaid Reef, Scott Reef, and Seringapatam Reef, Western Australia.