Rowley Shoals Environmental Survey 2013, WESTERN AUSTRALIA (WEL)

The coral and fish communities at the AIMS Long Term Monitoring (LTM) sites at Mermaid, Clerke and Imperiuse reefs were re-surveyed, following periodic surveys since 1994. To inform the design of future monitoring programs, communities at different habitats at the Rowley Shoals were surveyed at Clerke and Mermaid Reefs. In particular, coral and fish communities were surveyed at the reef slope in 9m, 6m, 3m and reef flat habitats, and at the base and top of three replicate bombies within the lagoon and false lagoon (Clerke Reef only). Additionally, Baited Remote Underwater Videos (BRUVS - single)) were deployed at the reef slope at 9m and 3m, and at the bombie habitats within the lagoon, to investigate their use as a remote monitoring method for certain fish and shark populations. Several coral species were also sampled opportunistically to investigate whether their participation in the predicted mass spawning at the end of October differs from that documented previously at Scott Reef, and samples of the dominant brooding coral Isopora brueggemanni were collected to add existing samples of several species from Scott Reef and the Rowley Shoals for genetic analyses, when funding becomes available. This project is a co-investment between Woodside Petroleum Limited (WEL) and AIMS, in order to build scientific knowledge at the Rowley Shoals and was undertaken between 11th October - 2 December 2013.

自1994年起持续开展周期性监测以来，研究团队对美人鱼礁（Mermaid Reef）、克拉克礁（Clerke Reef）及因佩里厄斯礁（Imperiuse Reef）的澳大利亚海洋科学研究所（Australian Institute of Marine Science, AIMS）长期监测（Long Term Monitoring, LTM）站点的珊瑚与鱼类群落进行了复勘。为优化未来监测方案的设计，研究人员针对罗利沙洲（Rowley Shoals）内克拉克礁与美人鱼礁的不同生境中的生物群落开展了调查。具体而言，研究人员对9米、6米、3米水深的礁坡生境以及礁坪生境的珊瑚与鱼类群落进行了调查，同时仅针对克拉克礁的潟湖与假潟湖内的三处重复礁丘的基座与顶部开展了对应调查。此外，研究人员在9米与3米水深的礁坡以及潟湖内的礁丘生境布设了单诱饵远程水下视频系统（Baited Remote Underwater Videos, BRUVS），以评估该系统作为特定鱼类与鲨鱼种群远程监测手段的可行性。研究人员还对多种珊瑚物种进行了附带采样，以探究其在10月底预计发生的大规模产卵事件中的参与模式是否与此前在斯科特礁（Scott Reef）记录的结果存在差异；同时采集了优势孵育型珊瑚异枝珊瑚（Isopora brueggemanni）的样本，待资金到位后，可与现有斯科特礁及罗利沙洲的多个物种样本一同开展遗传分析。本项目由伍德赛德石油有限公司（Woodside Petroleum Limited, WEL）与澳大利亚海洋科学研究所（AIMS）联合投资，旨在丰富罗利沙洲的海洋科学研究基础，实施周期为2013年10月11日至12月2日。