Biodiversity studies as part of the CSIRO Wealth from Oceans Collaborative Cluster programme

Node 1 of the Ningaloo Cluster study addresses habitats and biodiversity. Key habitat types will be identified using aerial photography and will be used to develop a stratified sampling approach. Two focal areas have been selected, based on sanctuary zones within the Ningaloo Marine Park (NMP): Osprey in the northern part of the NMP and Maud in the south. A nested sampling programme will be initiated within each of these locations, consisting of surveying transects at different spatial scales: cross-reef transects (shore to reef edge) to identify major habitat types and changes; and finer-scale habitat surveys of biodiversity and abundance of different major groups of organisms. The focus of the finer-scale surveys will be on non-scleractinian cnidarians, macroalgae, sponges, echinoderms and molluscs. A field trip in September/October 2007 will provide field validation of the initial site selection and will commence the sampling programme. Field trips in April 2006 and April 2007, while ostensibly to obtain spectral signatures to add to the spectral library for use in interpreting the hyperspectral imagery, were also an opportunity to test sampling techniques and identify key study locations