Orman Reef Seagrass Survey in Torres Strait, November 2018

Torres Strait seagrass data from Kai and Gariar Reefs collected in November 2018. The dataset comprises 124 survey sites and describes seagrass presence, species composition, and biomass across two reef-top meadows. It was produced by TropWATER at James Cook University as part of long-term monitoring for dugong and turtle management.

Use Cases

• Mapping seagrass meadow extent and health based on GIS shapefiles.
• Analyzing species composition changes for conservation planning based on surveyed sites.
• Modeling biomass variation across reef-top habitats for carbon stock estimation.
• Supporting marine spatial planning for dugong and turtle management based on the described monitoring program.

Strengths

• Includes data from 124 specific survey sites.
• Provides three distinct GIS layers (site, meadow, interpolation) for multi-scale analysis.
• Follows established TropWATER Seagrass Group methods with calibration procedures for biomass estimates.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Freshness should be verified as the last update timestamp is in the future (2026-06-17).

Provenance

Source

TropWATER, James Cook University, via Australian Ocean Data Network.

Collection Method

Helicopter-based intertidal surveys using visual biomass estimation and quadrat sampling at GPS-recorded sites.

Time Range

November 2018

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-17 00:19:07.285916

Geography

Kai (Koey Maza) and Gariar Reefs, Orman Reef complex, Torres Strait.