Seagrass Meadows of Northern Australia from 2003-2005 Marine Survey

Australian Ocean Data Network hosts a collection of polygon data outlining significant seagrass meadows in the coastal waters of Arnhem Land, Kakadu, and the Gulf of Carpentaria. The data was collected for the Northern Australia Marine Biodiversity Survey (NAMBS) project between 2003 and 2005. Observers gathered data from imagery and ground-truthed it from helicopters and via in-situ sample grabs.

Use Cases

• Mapping coastal marine biodiversity based on seagrass meadow polygons.
• Analyzing changes in seagrass coverage over time based on the 2003-2005 survey period.
• Modeling habitat suitability for marine species based on seagrass distribution.
• Informing marine protected area planning based on identified significant meadow locations.

Strengths

• Data collection involved ground-truthing from helicopters and in-situ samples, suggesting field validation.
• Covers a defined temporal range from the Northern Australia Marine Biodiversity Survey between 2003 and 2005.
• Focuses on a specific geographic region: Arnhem Land, Kakadu, and Gulf of Carpentaria coastal waters.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale analysis.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Collected from imagery and ground-truthed by observers from helicopter and in-situ sample grabs.

Time Range

2003 to 2005

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-22 02:40:48.163302; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Coastal waters of Arnhem Land, Kakadu, and the Gulf of Carpentaria, Northern Australia.