Global Fish Community Responses to Kelp Abundance and Disturbance

A global meta-analysis of underwater visual survey data examining the effect of kelp bed disturbance and canopy density on fish communities. The dataset includes spatial, temporal, and ontogenetic variability of key fish species across temperate rocky reef habitats. Data was aggregated by the Australian Ocean Data Network and last updated in June 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling fish abundance based on kelp canopy density and disturbance levels.
• Analyzing community structure shifts in relation to rocky reef habitat covariates.
• Studying spatial and temporal variability of key fish species across a global temperate distribution.
• Investigating the influence of fisheries management regimes as a covariate on fish community responses.

Strengths

• Data spans a global temperate distribution, providing a broad geographic scope.
• Examines multiple covariates including rocky reef habitats and fisheries management regimes.
• Last updated in June 2026, suggesting recent maintenance.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data freshness should be verified as the last update timestamp is in the future (2026-06-05).

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Aggregated from a global meta-analysis of underwater visual surveys.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-05 06:44:31.525468

Geography

Global temperate distribution