Foraging Seabird Distribution and Trophic Data from Southeast Tasmania, 2015-2018

Bi-monthly ecosystem data collected over a 2.5-year period between November 2015 and January 2018 off southeast Tasmania. The Australian Ocean Data Network gathered this data to investigate the effects of long-term warming and a marine heatwave on zooplankton and higher trophic levels. Stations ranged from 5 to 15 km from land, covering depths from 50 to 100 meters from south Storm Bay into the Southern Ocean.

Use Cases

• Modeling seabird foraging distribution based on environmental variability and prey availability mentioned in the description
• Analyzing zooplankton community response to a marine heatwave event described in the study
• Investigating trophic cascade effects from changing lower-trophic level dynamics to top predators
• Mapping marine predator presence relative to bathymetric and geographic features of the continental shelf

Strengths

• Data collection spanned a 2.5-year period, capturing seasonal and interannual variability
• Integrated study design characterized multiple trophic levels from zooplankton to marine predators
• Spatial coverage includes a defined transect from near-shore to the shelf edge, with stations at specific depth ranges

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
• Data collection was bi-monthly from spring to autumn, leaving potential gaps in winter coverage

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Data were collected bi-monthly at stations perpendicular to shelf bathymetry.

Time Range

November 2015 to January 2018

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-13 10:53:40.180808; freshness should be verified

Geography

Continental shelf off south-east Tasmania, Australia, from south Storm Bay past Bruny Island into the Southern Ocean