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Project details

Title: Untangling the causes of change over 25 years in the southeast marine ecosystem (SEA-MES)
Id: 2606
Acronym: SEA-MES
Investigator(s): Rich Little
CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere - Hobart [details]

Description:
Years: 2023

Publications

Data Processing Report

Dataset

Journal Article

Report

Metadata.

Use [details] link to view survey details (map, reports, metadata etc) including links to download data.

List of surveys that this project was on. Click on column header to sort.

Use [details] link to view survey details (map, reports, metadata etc) including links to download data.

Survey InvestigatorDescription
IN2025_V04

[details]		 Little Our sampling protocol is driven by the effects that we have hypothesised to explain apparent trends in fish abundance. These impacts include changes that have occurred to the benthic habitat (H1: habitat modification hypothesis), changing food webs (H2: habitat hypothesis); water column (H3: climate hypothesis), and fishery catch. They are not independent of each other and can operate either directly on the species or indirectly through the supporting habitats and associated trophic systems.
IN2024_V05

[details]		 Little, Rich The marine waters of southeast Australia are one of a series of global ocean hotspots. Species abundances are changing. Many are shifting their distributions southward. Extreme events, such as marine heatwaves, are leading to additional impacts. In this hotspot lies the Australian Commonwealth Southeast Marine Park Network (SE-MPN). It is unclear whether ecosystem changes have also affected the marine parks, or whether the network has mitigated them. Also, in this hotspot lie important fisheries, providing the bulk of fresh fish to Melbourne and Sydney markets. Observations from the fisheries in the region over the past 20 years have indicated declines in abundance and commercial catch rates of several species. Stocks that were historically over-fished seem not to have recovered as expected, despite active fisheries management and a reduction in fishing effort. A recent review of the fisheries concluded that physical and ecosystem factors are likely to be affecting the main species, directly or indirectly. The last survey of the ecosystem was conducted 25 years ago. This project will repeat this survey to document changes in the ecosystem and establish a new biological and environmental baseline to help answer three broad questions: 1. How and why have fish assemblages and species abundances changed in the southeast ecosystem, and can the causes be mitigated? 2. How does this affect the multiple-use management of the region, particularly conservation and biodiversity management of Australian Marine Parks and the range of human activities in it? 3. What are the implications for marine spatial planning and adaptive management in the sectors that use the marine ecosystem? The survey is also testing new monitoring techniques including environmental DNA, and AI technology to detect and count seabirds. IN2024_V05 is the third of four monitoring surveys planned to help answer the above questions. For more details, please refer to the voyage documentation.
IN2024_V03

[details]		 Little (CSIRO) This project will repeat surveys to document changes and establish a new biological and environmental baseline to help answer three broad questions: 1. How and why have fish assemblages and species abundances changed in the southeast ecosystem, and can the causes be mitigated? 2. How does this affect the multiple-use management of the region, particularly conservation and biodiversity management of Australian Marine Parks and the hive of activity from fisheries, oil & gas, and renewable energy sectors? 3. What are the implications for marine spatial planning and adaptive management in the sectors that use the marine ecosystem? It is also testing new monitoring techniques: 1. To measure fish presence and abundance using eDNA two sampling approaches, and how they compare to conventional sampling approaches. 2. To detect and count seabirds using deck mounted video camera. IN2024_V03 is the second of four monitoring surveys planned to help answer the above questions.
IN2023_V05

[details]		 Richard Little (CSIRO Environment) This project will repeat the surveys to document changes and establish a new biological and environmental baseline to help answer three broad questions: 1. How and why have fish assemblages and species abundances changed in the southeast ecosystem, and can the causes be mitigated? 2. How does this affect the multiple-use management of the region, particularly conservation and biodiversity management of Australian Marine Parks and the hive of activity from fisheries, oil & gas, and renewable energy sectors? 3. What are the implications for marine spatial planning and adaptive management in the sectors that use the marine ecosystem? Our sampling protocol is driven by the effects that we have hypothesised to explain apparent trends in fish abundance. These impacts include changes that have occurred to the benthic habitat (H1: habitat modification hypothesis), changing food webs (H2: habitat hypothesis); water column (H3: climate hypothesis), and fishery catch. They are not independent of each other and can operate either directly on the species or indirectly through the supporting habitats and associated trophic systems. The project is also committed to maximising research benefit and impact for Parks Australia in their monitoring needs for the Flinders and Freycinet marine parks in the Southeast marine park network. We are planning to spending 4 days and nights conducting non-extractive sampling in the marine parks. Within the marine parks we will be using the DTC to measure benthic habitat on reefs and sediments. During the day, we will spend collecting extractive trawl samples outside of the Parks.
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