Water Properties of Ashmore Reef, Australia, 1991-Present

Water quality observations for Ashmore Reef, a tropical marine reserve on Australia's North-west Shelf, collected since 1991 with an intensive program from 1999. Data includes regional, lagoonal, and well water chemistry, sea surface temperatures ranging from 25.48°C to 30.2°C, and salinity measurements from 34.51 to 34.75. The dataset is published by the Australian Ocean Data Network.

Use Cases

• Modeling the relationship between water chemistry and biodiversity based on long-term observational data.
• Analyzing the impact of semi-diurnal tides on lagoon water properties based on the described tidal volume.
• Studying the characteristics of freshwater lenses on vegetated cays based on well water pumping and salinity data.
• Investigating seasonal temperature and salinity variations in oceanic versus lagoonal waters based on the provided ranges.

Strengths

• Long-term observational record spanning from 1991 with an intensive program since 1999.
• Includes specific, quantified ranges for key parameters like temperature (25.48°C to 30.2°C), salinity (34.51 to 34.75), and well water pumping (150,000 liters/year).
• Covers multiple water bodies: regional oceanic water, two lagoons, and freshwater well lenses.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is presented in an HTML format, which may require parsing to extract structured data.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Field observations and satellite-derived measurements.

Time Range

1991 to present

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-16 20:30:47.413140; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Ashmore Reef, North-west Shelf, Australia