Great Barrier Reef Submerged Bank Areas and Potential Coral Habitat

A 2013 study from the Great Barrier Reef quantifies deep reef habitats. The dataset indicates that 61% of the seabed on submerged banks (25,600 km²) is deeper than near-sea-surface reefs, with over half (around 14,000 km²) modelled as suitable for coral. It was published by researchers including Peter T. Harris and hosted by the Australian Ocean Data Network.

Use Cases

• Modeling potential coral refugia based on submerged bank depth and distribution
• Assessing the spatial extent of deep reef habitats versus near-sea-surface reefs
• Planning marine protected areas using predictive habitat suitability maps
• Studying the latitudinal distribution of reef habitats along the continental shelf

Strengths

• Quantifies a specific area of submerged banks (25,600 km²) and near-sea-surface reef caps (16,110 km²).
• Provides a mean depth estimate (around 27 m) for the submerged bank habitat.
• Includes predictive modelling results indicating over half (around 14,000 km²) of the area is suitable for coral.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Freshness should be verified; the underlying study is from 2013.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network (data_gov_au)

Collection Method

Likely derived from bathymetric surveys and predictive habitat modelling as described in the cited journal article.

Time Range

Study published in 2013; temporal coverage of underlying data is not specified.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-05 06:24:21.279281; freshness should be verified

Geography

Great Barrier Reef, Australia