Understanding the distribution of reef habitats and associated biota on the continental shelf is important for managing Australia’s Marine Park (AMP) network. This is because reef habitats on the continental shelf are highly productive when compared abysal habitats, and are often subjected to disproportionate pressures from fishing, oil and gas and shipping sectors. This report documents the collation, synthesis and location of publically available datasets describing the distribution of reef habitats and associated sessile and mobile biota on the continental shelf regions of AMPs in the Temperate east, South-east, and South-west marine planning regions. Additionaly, this project has also been the identification of key gaps in our understanding of the physical mapping and sampling of reef-affiliated biota to assist in the prioritisation of future research programmes. The collation of fine-scale reef mapping data (i.e. multibeam sonar) was restricted to the continental shelf regions of both temperate and tropical water AMPs. We found that, with the exception of Lord Howe (100 %), Cod Grounds (98 %), Perth Canyon (65 %) and Tasman Fracture (48 %) AMPs, most continental shelf regions of the remaining 54 AMPs assessed in this report had < 25 % mapping coverage. Importantly, Boags, Cartier Island and Central Eastern AMPs had no fine-scale mapping. The report provides an updated description of reef-affiliated seabed biota in many of the AMPs within the Temperate east, South-east and South-west marine planning regions. We focused on temperate water AMPs as the tropical AMPs have been fairly were covered by the North-west Atlas (http://northwestatlas.org/nwa), Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (http://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/) and Ceccarelli (2011; Coral Sea). In undertaking this process we found that 12 of the 36 temperate water AMPs assessd had no scientific sampling of seabed reef-affiliated biota, including: Boags, Bremer, Central Eastern, Eastern Recherche, Hunter, Jervis, Jurien, Murray, Southern Kangaroo Island, Twilight and Western Kangaroo Island AMPs. Interestingly, most of our understanding of reef-affiliated sessile seabed biota comes from, often limited, towed video transects undertaken by CSIRO and others, which were done for purposes often related to defining fisheries habitat prior to the the establishment of the AMP boundaries. While the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) has been adopted as a standard tool for quantifying sessile seabed biota, only Beagle, Geographe, Huon, Flinders, Freycinet and Tasman Fracture AMPs have existing AUV transects. In the context of informing national State of Environment Reporting, the lack of AUV transects in the AMPs along most of the southern and western coastline of mainland Australia was identified as a significant gap in the national AUV monitoring programme. We identified datasets for reef-affiliated demersal fishes (and in some instances mobile invertebrate fauna such as southern rock lobster). A revised description of reef-affiliated demersal fishes for all except two (i.e. Central Eastern and Jervis AMPs) of the continental shelf regions within the Temperate east marine planning region was completed. In the Southeast marine planning region, we were able to identify datasets on reef-affiliated demersal fish for just over half of the AMPs, with AMPs in Bass Strait generally being the least sampled. Similarly, in the South-west marine planning region, we have identified a number of baited remote underwater video datasets collected by Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (formally Department of Fisheries), consultants and university researchers describing the reef-affiliated fish assemblages for more than half of the AMPs. Unfortunately, we have been unable to access some of these data in the timeframe of this project, but is likely to be available in Global Archive (http://globalarchive.org/) towards the end of 2017. As a result, detailed descriptions of the reef-fish biota in the South-west AMPs has yet to be as comprehensively undertaken as their South-east and Temperate east counterparts. Importantly, we have identified a number of AMPs with no sampling for reefaffiliated fishes, these include; Apollo, Boags, Central Eastern, Great Australian Bight, Huon, Jervis, Jurien, Murat, Murray, Southern Kangaroo Island, Two Rocks, Western Kangaroo Island and Zeehan AMPs. It should also be noted that very little fish data is available for the Beagle AMP. Our current understanding comes from four exploratory BRUV deployments and animal-borne cameras deployed from 2008-2012 by Prof. John Arnould (Deakin University), with the latter representing a non-standardised means of fish data collection. In addition to the updated descriptions and identified sampling gaps, we have been able to evaluate and improve the comprehensiveness of online data portals such as CSIROs Australian Region MArine Data Aggregation (ARMADA). For example, the ARMADA platform now contains the ability to summarise physical and biological datasets from geoservers around Australia by AMPs and proposed zones. Further, the data collected is assisting in the development of new interactive data portals such SeaMap Australia, GlobalArchive and Squidle + that are currently in beta testing phase, with the latter two providing a mechanism to lodge, explore and download unprocessed and processed baited remote underwater stereo video cameras (stereo BRUVs) and AUV imagery. These online data portals will improve the discovery of these datasets via links to the AODN, and set the stage for automated image processing that is being developed internationally. Ultimately, this project has improved access to mapping and biological datasets that will better inform the fishing, research and management communities.

Depth range
0- 200 m

Mesophotic “mentions”
8 x (total of 43285 words)

Classification
* Focused on 'mesophotic' depth range
* Focused on 'mesophotic coral ecosystem'
* Focused on 'temperate mesophotic ecosystem'

Fields
Acoustics
Biodiversity
Community structure
Ecology
Fisheries
Geomorphology
Long-term monitoring
Management and Conservation
Methods and Technology
Taxonomy

Focusgroups
Actiniaria and Ceriantharia (Sea anemones)
Algae (Macro, Turf and Crustose Coralline)
Antipatharia (Black Corals)
Crustacea
Fishes
Octocorallia (Soft Corals)
Other invertebrates
Overall benthic (groups)
Porifera (Sponges)
Scleractinia (Hard Corals)
Zoantharia (Zoanthids)
Seagrass

Locations
Australia - Southeastern Australia
Australia - Western Australia

Platforms
Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV)
Baited Remote Underwater Video (BRUV)
Drop / Towed Video
SCUBA (open-circuit or unspecified)
Sonar / Multibeam