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Including biogeochemical factors and a temporal component in benthic habitat maps: Influences on infaunal diversity in a temperate embayment

Created 17/10/2025

Updated 17/10/2025

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Mapping of benthic habitats seldom considers biogeochemical variables or changes across time. We aimed to: (i) develop winter and summer benthic habitat maps for a sandy embayment; and (ii) compare the effectiveness of various maps for differentiating infauna. Patch-types (internally homogeneous areas of seafloor) were constructed using combinations of abiotic parameters, and are presented in sediment-based, biogeochemistry-based and combined sediment/biogeochemistry-based habitat maps. August and February surveys were undertaken in Jervis Bay, Australia, to collect samples for physical (%mud, sorting, %carbonate), biogeochemical (chlorophyll a, sulfur, sediment metabolism, bio-available elements) and infaunal analyses. Boosted Decision Tree and cokriging models generated spatially continuous data-layers. Habitat maps were made from classified layers using GIS overlays, and were interpreted from a biophysical-process perspective. Biogeochemistry and %mud varied spatially and temporally, even in visually homogeneous sediments. Species turnover across patch-types was important for diversity, and the utility of habitat maps for differentiating biological communities varied across months. Diversity patterns were broadly related to reactive carbon and redox which varied temporally. Inclusion of biogeochemical factors and time in habitat maps provides a better framework for differentiating species and interpreting biodiversity patterns than once-off studies based solely on sedimentology or video-analysis.

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Title Including biogeochemical factors and a temporal component in benthic habitat maps: Influences on infaunal diversity in a temperate embayment
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/707db226-59a4-4bd7-91ab-81301810cedd
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 22/04/2018
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
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Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "Including biogeochemical factors and a temporal component in benthic habitat maps: Influences on infaunal diversity in a temperate embayment". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/including-biogeochemical-factors-and-a-temporal-component-in-benthic-habitat-maps-influences-on