Temperate Australian Rocky Reef Abundance Data from Tasmanian Marine Protected Areas

Quantitative transect data captures fish and invertebrate abundance and algal cover across temperate Australian rocky reefs. The Australian Ocean Data Network manages this record, which includes temporal replication at a year scale for sites like the Kent Group. Methods originate from research on Tasmanian Marine Protected Areas established in the late 1990s.

Use Cases

• Analyze temporal trends in fish abundance and algal cover within specific MPAs like Maria Island or Port Davey.
• Compare species abundance and megafaunal invertebrate counts between protected sites at 5m depth and 10m depth transects.
• Model the relationship between spatial location and biodiversity metrics for MPA planning surveys in regions like St Helens or the Waterhouse Region.
• Assess community recovery using temporal replication data following disturbances, such as the oil spill assessment at Low Head.

Strengths

• Data collection follows a standardized transect-based methodology detailed in a 1997 publication.
• Includes temporal replication at a year scale for monitoring change over time.
• Covers a wide range of locations across Temperate Australia, including multiple Tasmanian MPAs.

Limitations

• Specific row count, column names, and sample size are unknown.
• Primary file formats are PNG and HTML, suggesting the core tabular data may not be directly accessible.
• Geographic focus is heavily biased towards Tasmanian waters, with limited coverage of other temperate Australian regions.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network.

Collection Method

Quantitative abundance derived from transect-based counts at 5m and/or 10m depths.

Time Range

Temporal replication at year scale; core methodology published in 1997.

Freshness

Record was last updated in April 2026.

Geography

Temperate Australia, with specific data from Tasmanian Marine Protected Areas (e.g., Kent Group, Maria Island).