Mapping and characterising soft-sediment habitats, and evaluating physical variables as surrogates of biodiversity in Jervis Bay, NSW

A series of short field surveys in Jervis Bay, New South Wales, were undertaken by Geoscience Australia staff as part of the Surrogates Program in the Commonwealth Environmental Research Facilities (CERF) Marine Biodiversity Hub. The aim of the Jervis Bay field work was to collect accurately co-located physical and biological data to enable research into the utility of physical parameters as surrogates for patterns of benthic biodiversity in shallow soft-sediment habitats. In this report the survey design and sampling methods are described; selected field datasets are mapped and discussed; initial results of the laboratory analysis of seabed samples are presented; and there is a brief description of the upcoming analysis of covariance of the physical and biological datasets.

The major outputs of the survey work to date are:
1. High-resolution multibeam acoustic datasets for priority areas along the open coast of Jervis Bay (Beecroft Head to Drum and Drumsticks), within the Jervis Bay National Park; and within the southern bay around Darling Road, and in the bay entrance.
2. High quality underwater video footage of benthic habitats in the Darling Road study area acquired with Geoscience Australia's shallow-water towed-video system. The video was used to characterise benthic habitat types, relief/bedform types, and biota occurrence. Characterisations were collected in real-time along bi-directional (six offshore and four alongshore) towed video transects, and were subsequently processed and mapped into three ArcGIS map layers.
3. A set of broad-scale (bay-wide) widely-spaced, co-located sediment and biotic (infauna) seabed samples from the bay's soft-sediment habitats (polychaete mounds, drift algal beds, sand flats, and sand ripple and wave habitats);
4. Sediment samples for geochemical, biogeochemical and sedimentological analyses.
5. A new acoustic doppler current profiler was successfully trialed, and is now being used to collect seabed current data in the Darling Road study area.
6. A progress report on the survey work was presented at the annual CERF Marine Biodiversity Hub's Annual Science Workshop in October 2008.

澳大利亚地质调查局（Geoscience Australia）工作人员在新南威尔士州杰维斯湾开展了一系列短期野外调查，该工作隶属于英联邦环境研究设施（CERF）海洋生物多样性中心的替代物项目（Surrogates Program）。本次杰维斯湾野外工作的目标是采集精准匹配的物理与生物数据，以开展相关研究，探究物理参数作为浅海软沉积生境底栖生物多样性格局替代物的应用价值。本报告阐述了调查设计与采样方法，对选定的野外数据集进行了制图与讨论，展示了海底样品实验室分析的初步结果，并简要介绍了即将开展的物理与生物数据集协方差分析工作。

截至目前，本次调查工作的主要成果如下：
1. 杰维斯湾开放海岸优先区域（从比克罗夫特角至鼓槌岩）、杰维斯湾国家公园内、达令路周边南湾以及湾口区域的高分辨率多波束声学数据集；
2. 利用澳大利亚地质调查局的浅水拖曳视频系统采集的达令路研究区底栖生境高质量水下视频影像。该视频用于表征底栖生境类型、地形/底形类型以及生物群落分布情况。表征数据沿双向（6条离岸方向、4条沿岸方向）拖曳视频样带实时采集，后续经处理后被绘制成3个ArcGIS地图图层；
3. 采自海湾软沉积生境（多毛类丘体、漂流藻床、砂滩以及砂波纹与波浪生境）的一套大尺度（全海湾范围）、间隔均匀且匹配配套的沉积物与生物（底内动物）海底样品；
4. 用于地球化学、生物地球化学以及沉积学分析的沉积物样品；
5. 新型声学多普勒海流剖面仪（Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler）已成功完成试用，目前正用于在达令路研究区采集海流数据；
6. 2008年10月，本次调查工作的进展报告在英联邦环境研究设施海洋生物多样性中心年度科学研讨会上进行了展示。