Orman Reef Seagrass Survey in Torres Strait, September 2019

September 2019 intertidal benthic surveys of Kai and Gariar Reefs in the Torres Strait, conducted by TropWATER at James Cook University. The dataset includes 124 survey sites and describes seagrass presence, species composition, and biomass for two reef-top meadows. This monitoring provides information for dugong and turtle management plans to the TSRA and Australian governments.

Use Cases

• Mapping seagrass meadow extent and health based on site-level presence/absence and biomass data.
• Analyzing species composition changes for ecological monitoring based on percent species contribution estimates.
• Modeling spatial variation in seagrass biomass across reef-tops using the interpolation shapefile.
• Supporting marine megafauna (dugong, turtle) habitat management plans with seagrass community data.

Strengths

• Includes data from 124 specific survey sites.
• Provides three distinct GIS shapefiles (site, meadow, interpolation) for different analytical scales.
• Follows a documented, calibrated methodology for biomass estimation developed by the TropWATER Seagrass Group.
• Part of a long-term monitoring program, building on a baseline survey from September 2017.

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 and temporal bias inherent to the specific September 2019 survey period.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Helicopter-based intertidal surveys using GPS for location, visual biomass ranking, and species composition estimation within quadrats.

Time Range

September 2019

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-10 15:37:00.884832; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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