Great Barrier Reef Hard Coral Biodiversity Surveys and Interpolated Maps, 1994-2001

From 1994 to 2001, taxonomic surveys of hard corals were conducted on 110 reefs (599 transects) of the Great Barrier Reef by the Australian Institute of Marine Science. The dataset contains abundance estimates for each species and visual estimates of benthos group cover, which were later interpolated over the entire reef using Generalized Additive Models. The resulting gridded data is available as KML and ASCII Grid files.

Use Cases

• Modeling spatial patterns of coral species richness based on reef-averaged data.
• Analyzing changes in benthic cover (hard corals, soft corals, macroalgae) using the 6-point rating scales.
• Training species distribution models using the interpolated gridded data covering the entire Great Barrier Reef.
• Studying the relationship between water quality and coral community structure as referenced in the provided studies.

Strengths

• Surveys cover 110 reefs and 599 transects, providing a substantial spatial sample.
• Data includes both raw survey data (abundance, cover) and a derived, spatially interpolated gridded product.
• Surveys were conducted at two depth zones (deep and shallow), typically at two sites per reef.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The underlying survey data uses categorical 6-point ratings for abundance and cover, which may limit granular quantitative analysis.

Provenance

Source

Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), part of the MTSRF 1.1.5 project.

Collection Method

Rapid ecological assessments (taxonomic inventories based on swim surveys) at two depth zones.

Time Range

1994 to 2001

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-04 20:14:41.882470; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Great Barrier Reef, Australia