Seagrass coverage in Cockburn Sound, Western Australia (1999)

Cockburn Sound is a sheltered marine embayment 16 km long × 9 km wide, and consists of a deep central basin (17-22 m deep) surrounded by shallow platforms. The shallow platforms vary in width from 50 m to 3 km and are where seagrass meadows are found (see thumbnail). The seagrass mapping area was delineated as shallow platforms to a depth of 10 m and covered an area of approximately 3667 ha. In 1999, flights to acquire aerial photographs were purpose-flown in late-February to early-March when conditions were optimal. These conditions included maximum seagrass leaf cover; maximum water clarity; minimum haze from the adjacent industrial zone; minimum turbidity from dredging, river outflow or industrial activities; minimum cloud cover; weak prevailing winds; and incident sun angle at 20-30°. Colour photography with a yellow lens filter was obtained at two altitudes. High altitude imagery was collected at 10,000 m (scale, 1:55,000) for accurate ortho-rectification. The resulting imagery was used as a rectification base for the low-altitude imagery that was obtained at an altitude of 3,800 m. This dataset is hosted by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), University of Tasmania, on behalf of a consortium of industries and Western Australian Government Departments for the purposes of the Seamap Australia collaborative project (testing a national marine benthic habitat classification scheme). Data and metadata is from https://metadata.imas.utas.edu.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/metadata.show?uuid=81edfca0-9d59-11dc-a0ca-00188b4c0af8

Citation: Gary A. Kendrick, Matt J. Aylward, Bruce J. Hegge, Marion L. Cambridge, Karen Hillman, Alex Wyllie and Des A. Lord (2002) Changes in seagrass coverage in Cockburn Sound, Western Australia between 1967 and 1999. Aquatic Botany Volume 73, Issue 1, May 2002, Pages 75-87

Published: June 07, 2022 at 03:19

URL: https://www.marine.csiro.au/ipt/resource?r=seamapaus_wa_cockburnsound_seagrass_1999