Coral reef health database (Reef Check Australia)

Annual surveys by trained community volunteers provide long-term data on coral community health for the Great Barrier Reef and Southeast Queensland coral habitats. The Reef Check Australia monitoring program uses a method employed in 90 countries worldwide, enabling direct global comparison of results. Data includes substrate percent cover, abundance of key invertebrate and target fish species, and records of natural and anthropogenic impacts.

Use Cases

• Modeling coral reef ecosystem health trends over time based on annual survey data.
• Analyzing the impact of anthropogenic stressors on coral communities based on recorded impact data.
• Comparing local coral and fish abundance with global baselines using the standardized Reef Check method.
• Assessing substrate composition and habitat structure based on percent cover data.

Strengths

• Data collection follows the globally standardized Reef Check method used in 90 countries.
• Annual surveys provide a basis for long-term temporal pattern analysis.
• Includes quantitative, percentage, and categorical data types (e.g., siltation levels).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset scale are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Freshness should be verified; last updated metadata shows a future date (2026-07-10).

Provenance

Source

Reef Check Australia, aggregated by the Australian Ocean Data Network.

Collection Method

Quantitative data collected annually by trained community volunteers using the Reef Check methodology.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-10 20:36:40.095003; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Great Barrier Reef and Southeast Queensland coral habitats.