Reef Life Survey: Benthic Habitat Photo Quadrats

Reef Life Survey (RLS) provides standardized photo quadrats of marine habitat types, collected by trained SCUBA divers for global inshore environmental assessment. The data is managed by the Australian Ocean Data Network and was last updated on 2026-04-11. This specific dataset has been superseded by the National Reef Monitoring Network's benthic cover collection.

Use Cases

• Classifying benthic habitat types based on standardized underwater photo quadrats.
• Monitoring changes in inshore marine environments at a global scale.
• Training computer vision models for automated analysis of underwater habitat imagery.

Strengths

• Data collection follows standardized underwater visual census methods employed by trained divers.
• The dataset is part of a global-scale monitoring network for the inshore marine environment.

Limitations

• The dataset has been superseded by a newer collection, indicating it is not the most current version.
• Row count and specific column definitions are unknown, limiting suitability assessment.
• Available file formats (PDF, PNG, HTML) suggest the primary data may be embedded in reports or images rather than a structured table.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Standardized underwater visual census using photo quadrats by trained SCUBA divers.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-11 00:42:10.875056; freshness should be verified as the data is superseded.

Geography

Global inshore marine environments