Benthic Foraminifera and Sediment Data from the Torres Strait-Gulf of Papua Shelf

A study of three areas forming a transect across the Torres Strait-Gulf of Papua shelf, from the Fly River Delta to the shelf edge. The dataset likely contains sediment characteristics and relative abundances of benthic foraminiferal assemblages. It was published by the Australian Ocean Data Network and last updated on 2026-06-05.

Use Cases

• Modeling habitat types based on correlations between foraminiferal species and environmental variables like water depth and sediment composition.
• Assessing sediment reworking and preservation states using the developed foraminiferal preservation scale.
• Analyzing the influence of factors such as percent carbonate mud, gravel, organic carbon flux, temperature, and salinity on microbiotic communities.

Strengths

• Data covers a distinct transect across a shelf from a river delta to a reef edge, providing a spatial gradient.
• Analysis includes a developed preservation scale to assess reworking in surface sediments with high relict content.
• Findings indicate a strong correlation between benthic foraminifera and environmental variables like water depth, suggesting utility as habitat indicators.

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.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Detailed study of sediments and benthic fossil biota from three selected areas.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-05 06:17:57.267612; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Torres Strait-Gulf of Papua region, shelf from Fly River Delta to the northern extremity of the Great Barrier Reef.