Research from 2001 to 2010 quantified how El Niño intensity and sea-surface temperature increases lead to decreased breeding, increased foraging effort, and reproductive failure across multiple seabird species on the Great Barrier Reef. The dataset, managed by the Australian Ocean Data Network, also identifies important foraging areas and examines impacts from cyclones and tourist visitation. Findings are supported by multiple peer-reviewed publications from 2003 to 2009.
Use Cases
- Modeling seabird breeding success based on El Niño and sea-surface temperature correlations described in the research.
- Identifying critical foraging habitats for seabirds within and outside the Great Barrier Reef region.
- Assessing the impact of non-climate stressors like cyclone frequency and tourist visitation rates on a key breeding site.
- Studying behavioral and developmental plasticity in pelagic foraging seabirds coping with climate-related food availability changes.
Strengths
- Research covers a 9-year period from 2001 to 2010.
- Analysis includes multiple seabird species across both northern and southern sections of the Great Barrier Reef.
- Findings are documented in at least seven peer-reviewed scientific publications.
Limitations
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
- Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
- Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
Provenance
- Source
- Australian Ocean Data Network
- Collection Method
- Field research program under the Marine and Tropical Sciences Research Fund (MTSRF 2.5i.2, JCU).
- Time Range
- 2001 - 2010
- Freshness
- Last updated 2026-07-10 19:24:15.240689; freshness should be verified
- Geography
- Great Barrier Reef, Australia