Seabed Biodiversity on the Continental Shelf of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (Epibenthic Sled)

The benthic invertebrate, plant and fish biodiversity of the 200,000 km² area of the GBR shelf seabed was sampled by a 200 m tow of a 1.5 m epibenthic sled at 1191 sites, representing a full range of known physical environments, during six 1-month-long voyages on the AIMS vessel Lady Basten. More than 7,000 species/species-equivalent OTUs (operational taxonomic units) were identified. The dataset comprises 79,173 site-by-species records. A pipe-dredge was attached to the sled to collect sediment samples: a 500 ml subsample was processed for particle size and carbonate by Geoscience Australia; another 500 ml subsample was sieved on 1 mm mesh and preserved in 10% Formalin - Rose Bengal solution.