Three study areas in the Torres Strait-Gulf of Papua region form a transect from the Fly River Delta to the shelf edge. The dataset contains analyses of sediments and benthic fossil biota, specifically foraminiferal assemblages and microbiotic communities. It was contributed by the Australian Ocean Data Network and last updated in April 2026.
Use Cases
- Modeling correlation between benthic foraminiferal species distributions and water depth using relative abundance data.
- Analyzing the influence of environmental variables like percent carbonate mud, percent gravel, and organic carbon flux on microbiota communities.
- Assessing sediment reworking and preservation states across sites using the developed foraminiferal preservation scale and taphonomic features.
- Classifying habitat types based on the strong correlation between benthic foraminifera and variables including temperature, salinity, and mean grain size.
Strengths
- Data covers a transect across the continental shelf from 120 to 140 meters depth.
- Analysis includes multiple environmental attributes: sediment composition, organic carbon flux, temperature, and salinity.
Limitations
- Sample size and specific row count for sediment and species observations are unknown.
- Data description indicates poor preservation of foraminiferal tests, which may affect species identification.
- Geographic scope is limited to three specific areas in the Torres Strait-Gulf of Papua region.
Provenance
- Source
- Australian Ocean Data Network
- Collection Method
- Detailed study of sediments and benthic fossil biota across three selected areas; application of multivariate statistics.
- Time Range
- null
- Freshness
- null
- Geography
- Torres Strait-Gulf of Papua region, forming a transect from the Fly River Delta to the shelf edge near the northern Great Barrier Reef.