Rowley Shoals Marine Biodiversity Survey Metadata, December 2007

Parks Australia provides metadata for a biodiversity survey of three pristine coral reefs located 300 km west-northwest of Broome. The Rowley Shoals are considered potential global benchmarks for coral reef conservation due to their isolation from human impacts. This record highlights research relevant to Australian Marine Parks, originally published via the now-decommissioned Australian Marine Parks Science Atlas.

Use Cases

• Compare biodiversity trends across different marine protected area management regimes based on the description of three distinct shoals.
• Establish regional conservation benchmarks for coral reef health based on the described pristine condition of the Rowley Shoals.
• Inform management decisions for isolated reef ecosystems based on the described need for data on marine biodiversity trends over time.

Strengths

• Focuses on three specific, geographically isolated reefs considered among the world's most pristine coral environments.
• Metadata is provided by Parks Australia, the managing authority for Australian Marine Parks.
• Explicitly links data collection to the assessment of conservation management effectiveness.

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

Parks Australia

Collection Method

Marine biodiversity survey conducted 1-17 December 2007.

Time Range

Survey conducted 1-17 December 2007.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-16 22:55:44.471662; freshness should be verified

Geography

Rowley Shoals (Mermaid, Clerke, and Imperieuse reefs), approximately 300 km west-northwest of Broome, Western Australia.