Project 1.3.1 Year 1- Improved knowledge of biota, habitats and risks

Project Leader:  Dr Michael Haywood, CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research 

The Integrated Report Card Framework process in Year 1 (2006/2007) was important to improving our understanding of the usefulness and limitations of existing knowledge, and identifying key questions (in a management context) for future research.

Project 1.3.1 had three objectives for 2006/2007:

• Identyify and, where possible, fill data gaps in Torres Strait inter-reef seabed mapping from existing data:  Undertake a desktop gap analysis of data collected to date for the Torres Strait region.  Where information exists in raw format, analyse information to fill these gaps.  For example, shoal areas too rough for biodiversity sampling may have poorly sampled sessile biota, information for these areas could be filled by detailed quantification of visible seabed species from existing seabed video and stills; including mapping output products.

• Coral reefs characterisation:  Using available datasets of biological and physical data from internal and external sources, characterise the seabed associated with reefal areas of the Torres Strait.  This process will align with work undertaken for the National Oceans Office Torres Strait (inter-reef) Seabed Characterisation project.  The available reef edge and reef top inventory data includes habitat type, coral morphotypes, seagrass species, algal genera, reef fish species and invertebrate resource species.  An earlier series of reports point-mapped the composition of each of the above categories and analysed some simple surrogates (e.g. distance from land/rivers on seagrass and reef-fish).  A cluster analysis of reef-fish communities was conducted, but only point mapped.  These previous analyses will form a basis for further development of reef assemblage definitions for each of the above reef faunal categories, as well as a single reef assemblage classification across all faunal categories.

• Idenfication of areas for future work - targeted investigation of biota, habitats and risks in Years 2-4:  Objectives to be delivered in Years 2-4 are under development and will, in some respects, be defined by the work to be undertaken in Year 1 (2006/2007).  It is anticipated that a collaborative project (likely involving CMAR, GA, AIMS, DPI&F, JCU) will be conducted to follow-up the work of the CRC Torres Strait.  Activities in Year 1 will infill gaps in existing knowledge of Torres Strait environmental assets from existing sources and identify, through the user-engaged process of developing the Framework for the Integrated Report Card, priority issues and hence priority data gaps for this project for Years 2-4.