CEAMARC CAML Surveys: Antarctic Shelf Fish Biodiversity for Ecoregionalisation

Ichthyofauna data from the Collaborative East Antarctic Marine Census surveys, aiming to establish biodiversity baselines for the Southern Ocean. The dataset is hosted by the Australian Ocean Data Network and was last updated on 2026-06-05. Its objective is to understand biodiversity patterns and potential changes driven by environmental forcing.

Use Cases

• Defining marine ecoregions based on community structure of long-lived species like benthos and neritic fish.
• Analyzing biodiversity patterns in the Southern Ocean in relation to abiotic and anthropogenic forcing.
• Establishing baseline community data to model potential changes from habitat modification.
• Integrating observations with tools and databases like SCAR-MarBIN for broader ecosystem studies.

Strengths

• Data originates from the structured CAML (Census of Antarctic Marine Life) surveys.
• Focuses on a critical baseline for understanding changes in the Southern Ocean ecosystem.
• Associated with the SCAR-MarBIN database for integration with broader Antarctic observations.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Collected via the Collaborative East Antarctic Marine Census (CEAMARC) CAML surveys.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-05 06:09:48.182745; freshness should be verified.

Geography

East Antarctic shelf and oceanic zone, Southern Ocean