Coral Reef Fish Recruit Abundance in Macroalgal and Reef Habitats, North-West Australia

Parks Australia provides a dataset from research on the importance of macroalgal fields as nursery habitat for coral reef fish in north-west Australia. The study recorded 6,935 individual recruit fish from 105 species across six macroalgal and 11 coral reef sites near Montebello and Barrow Islands. This record was made available to maintain access after the decommissioning of the Australian Marine Parks Science Atlas.

Use Cases

• Compare species composition of fish recruits between macroalgal and coral reef habitats based on the described census data.
• Model the correlation between high-canopy macroalgae cover and abundance of specific taxa like Lethrinids, based on the reported r² value of 0.40.
• Assess the role of macroalgal fields as essential juvenile habitat for species like Lethrinus and Choerodon, as highlighted in the study.
• Investigate habitat specificity for different feeding guilds (e.g., corallivores, algal croppers) based on the described abundance patterns.

Strengths

• Contains observations of 6,935 individual fish recruits from 105 species, 54 genera, and 20 families.
• Includes data from 17 distinct survey sites (6 macroalgal, 11 coral reef) in the Montebello and Barrow Islands.
• Highlights specific findings, such as 16 recruit species (15.2%) observed exclusively at macroalgal sites.

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 specific study sites in north-west Australia.

Provenance

Source

Parks Australia, referencing a source publication from research within or relevant to Australian Marine Parks.

Collection Method

Data likely gathered via underwater visual census surveys, as described.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-15 02:49:17.880259; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Montebello and Barrow Islands, north-west Australia.