NESP 4.6: Expert Elicitation on GBR Marine Species Function and Vulnerability, 2018

70 functionally and taxonomically distinct groups of marine species on the Great Barrier Reef were assessed by an expert panel in 2018. The data integrates expert survey responses and literature reviews, focusing on functional importance, vulnerability, and manageability. The dataset was produced by the Australian Ocean Data Network as part of the NESP TWQ 4.6 project.

Use Cases

• Ranking species for conservation priority based on expert-assessed functional importance and vulnerability scores.
• Analyzing predator-prey relationships for mobile benthic invertebrates based on the systematic literature review component.
• Modeling the impact of stressors on reef ecosystem functioning using expert-derived vulnerability assessments.
• Calibrating ecological models with expert elicitation data on species' contributions to ecosystem processes.

Strengths

• Assessment based on 16 expert survey responses, with scores averaged across taxonomic and functional groups.
• Scoring criteria were explicitly outlined and calibrated against literature and empirical data to reduce bias.
• Covers 70 distinct marine species groups, providing a broad functional and taxonomic scope.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the Great Barrier Reef focus.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Expert elicitation via online surveys and systematic literature review.

Time Range

Primary expert surveys conducted July–August 2018; literature review and case studies include data up to 2018.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-10 20:28:52.180319; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Great Barrier Reef, Australia