Oyster Harbour Seagrass Survey Points from 2019 and 2021

Oyster Harbour Seagrass Survey - Points contains field observations of seagrass distribution, cover, meadow type, and macroalgae across 208-216 points in an Australian estuary. The dataset was created by the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation from surveys conducted in March 2019 and January 2021.

Use Cases

• Model seagrass species distribution (Posidonia australis and Posidonia sinuousa) across survey points using environmental covariates.
• Analyze trends in seagrass cover percentage classes (0, <15%, 15-45%, 45-75%, >75%) between the 2019 and 2021 survey years.
• Assess correlations between meadow type (continuous or patchy) and recorded levels of epiphytic cover (none, very low, low, medium, high, very high).
• Map macroalgae cover percentage categories against physical water profile data collected at approximately one-third of the sites.

Strengths

• Contains 208-216 spatially referenced observation points for detailed geospatial analysis.
• Includes multiple measured variables: species, cover classes, meadow type, epiphytic cover, and macroalgae cover.
• Provides temporal comparison with data from two distinct survey years (2019 and 2021).
• A subset of sites includes additional physical water profiles, secchi depth, and euphotic depth measurements.

Limitations

• Physical water profile data is only available for approximately one-third of the observation sites, limiting full environmental analysis.
• The categorical nature of cover and epiphytic cover variables may reduce granularity for some quantitative models.

Provenance

Source

Department of Water and Environmental Regulation, Geospatial and Data Services Manager.

Collection Method

Field surveys recording seagrass species, cover, meadow type, epiphytic cover, and macroalgae at predefined observation points.

Time Range

March 2019 and January 2021.

Freshness

Data last updated on the platform in March 2026, though the underlying surveys are from 2019 and 2021.

Geography

Oyster Harbour estuary, Australia.