Section 1: Protecting conservation values in the Commonwealth marine area Archives | NERP Marine Biodiversity 2015 Final Report

The need: Protecting conservation values in the Commonwealth marine area

Commonwealth marine areas are protected as a matter of national environmental significance under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act ...

Map of Australia showing submarine canyons in relation to CMRs.

Canyons: identifying connectivity patterns for management

Video: Geomorphology - Carnarvon Shelf Flythrough movie showing the bathymetry of Carnarvon shelf, highlighting benthic habitats at Point Cloates. The ba...

Ocean depth models showing larval dispersal clouds.

Feature: Modelling connectivity

Modelling connectivity ABOVE: Simulated larval dispersal in a column of water located near the Gascoyne Commonwealth Marine Reserve (Cape Range Canyon and Ca...

Feature: Building a framework for the world’s largest living structure

IMAGE: The Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. Image: Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. Establishing an integrated monitoring framework for the G...

Improving access to information about fish communities in Commonwealth marine reserves

Under the Integrated Marine and Coastal Regionalisation of Australia (IMCRA v4.0), Australia’s marine environment was classified into bioregions that make s...

Exploring the origins of Australian marine diversity

IMAGE: A fossil of an extinct ray. The maskrays originated after the collision of the Australian and Eurasian plates and their speciation may have been acc...

First maps of biodiversity across Australia’s seafloor

IMAGE: Uroptychus spinirostris is an endemic species of squat lobster that occurs across northern Australia at about 400 m depth. Images: Anna McCallum, Mu...

Map of Australia showing change in seismic surveys.

Collating existing pressure data for the Commonwealth marine area

Understanding the pressures on the marine environment and their change over time is an important part of developing and prioritising management actions. IMAG...

Diagrams showing trawled regions over a period of 20 years.

Assessing relative and cumulative impact on the marine environment

Pressures on the marine environment are steadily increasing with new uses including renewable energy and new pressures including warming and more acidic seas....