The goal of this project is to integrate the research developed on benthic primary producers (BPPs) in shallow coastal waters of the Kimberley. This includes understanding variations in the physical environment and biogeochemical conditions, as well as the spatial distribution of BPPs and their contribution to productivity in the region. Research objectives were:
- Develop a geographic information system (GIS) for spatially and temporally explicit baseline information on habitats and processes.
- Characterise reef platform and adjacent habitats based on environmental gradients.
- Identify key physical and biological drivers that influence distribution of benthic primary producers.
- Identify methods for integration of available data and upscaling to visited and unvisited sites.
- Contribute to improving the regional understanding of marine biodiversity, distribution and resilience.
- Develop baseline maps to go toward cost-effective methods for long-term monitoring of benthic primary-producer habitats and associated environmental processes.
Data from KMRP projects 1.3.1, 1.4, 1.2.5, 2.2.3 and 2.2.4 were used in this project. ESRI Geodatabase and shapefiles are the output data for this project.
3 shapefile names - Thalassia_hemprichii_final.shp, tallonhabmapf.shp and Enhalus_acoroides_final.shp