The objective of this report is to provide a detailed description of the marine environmental
data that have been collated by the Marine Biodiversity Hub. The Marine Biodiversity Hub
is part of the Australian Government’s Commonwealth Environment Research Facilities
Program (CERF). The report includes metadata and distribution maps for 37 marine
physical environmental variables that make up the dataset as at November 2009. The data
were provided by Geoscience Australia and CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research and
have been employed in the Marine Biodiversity Hub’s surrogacy and predictive modelling
research programs.

Bathymetry, geomorphology, seabed sediment and seabed exposure parameters were
produced by Geoscience Australia. Bottom-water and surface-water parameters were
produced by the CSIRO. Some data are restricted to the continental shelf (<200m) while
others span the more extensive Australian Exclusive Economic Zone adjacent to the
mainland. All data were transformed to a common datum, WGS84, and converted to a
common grid with a cell size of 0.01 degrees. The metadata reports conform to ANZLIC
standards. As the goal was to use these data in national-scale predictions of seabed
biodiversity, only data with national coverage were included.