Great Barrier Reef Submerged Bank Habitat Extent and Suitability

Geoscience Australia Data provides a dataset on submerged bank habitats within the Great Barrier Reef. It indicates that 61% of available seabed on submerged banks (25,600 km²) is deeper than near-sea-surface reefs, with predictive modeling suggesting over half (around 14,000 km²) is suitable for coral communities. The data originates from research published in the ICES Journal of Marine Science in 2013.

Use Cases

• Modeling potential deep coral reef habitat distribution based on submerged bank area and depth.
• Assessing the spatial extent of coral reef habitats beyond near-sea-surface reefs.
• Planning marine protected areas based on the latitudinal distribution of submerged bank habitats.
• Studying the impact of ocean warming on reef habitat availability and connectivity.

Strengths

• Provides specific spatial extents: 25,600 km² of submerged bank area and 14,000 km² of modeled suitable habitat.
• Includes a mean depth estimate (around 27 m) for the submerged bank habitats.
• Based on research published in a peer-reviewed journal (ICES Journal of Marine Science, 2013).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is from 2013 research; freshness should be verified for current applications.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Likely derived from bathymetric surveys and predictive habitat modeling.

Time Range

Research published in 2013.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-14 09:02:27.967130; freshness should be verified

Geography

Great Barrier Reef, Australia