The Marine chapter of the 2016 State of the Environment (SoE) report incorporates multiple expert templates developed from streams of marine data. This metadata record describes the Expert Assessment "The state and trends of ecological processes – trophic structures and relationships". The full Expert Assessment, including figures and tables (where provided), is attached to this record. Where available, the Data Stream(s) used to generate this Expert Assessment are accessible through the "On-line Resources" section of this record. DESCRIPTION OF ECOLOGICAL PROCESS FOR EXPERT ASSESSMENT For this assessment, food web structure and function as defined by diet and modelling studies (which synthesis much of the available information) have been used to evaluate the status and trends for trophic structures and relationships. The status and outlook for the structure of Australian marine ecosystems is highly variable. Food webs are naturally dynamic, through time and space (e.g. Griffiths et al. 2009), and human pressure on them has varied around Australia over the past two centuries, altering trophic structures to differing degrees (Dell et al. 2013, GBRMPA 2014). Food webs studies have primarily focused on coastal and shelf waters (e.g. Salini et al 1998, Bulman et al. 2001, DofWWA 2009), with much less coverage of deep water food webs. Diet studies have only occurred intermittently and few studies have been subsequently repeated (e.g. recent resampling of fish diets on the shelf of SE Australia; CSIRO unpublished). Consequently, understanding the true magnitude of inter-annual variation in diets is low and there is little capacity to be sure of dietary changes through time. Modelling studies (Fulton et al. 2005, Klaer 2005) suggest there has been trophic restructuring of food webs in south-eastern Australia over the last century, particularly as a result of the intensification of commercial fisheries up to the 1990s. The reduction in fishing pressure, particularly over the last 5-10 years (Flood et al. 2014, Patterson et al. 2015) will likely, eventually, allow the recovery of trophic structures. However, a complete recovery is unlikely given the multitude of on-going pressures (e.g. remaining fishing pressure, both recreational and commercial, shipping, coastal habitat modification, pollution, etc.) and because some highly depleted species (e.g. eastern gemfish) have failed to recover from past overexploitation; which itself may be related to shifts in trophic connections with predators and prey (TSSC 2009). In addition, climate change is reshaping south eastern ecosystems, with shifts in species ranges (Sunday et al. 2015) and the realisation of new trophic interactions (e.g. shifts in octopus diets; Briceno et al. 2015), as omnivorous species appear to shift more rapidly than carnivores (Sunday et al. 2015). Eastern Australian ecosystems, including the Great Barrier Reef are highly modified (Butler and Jernakoff 1999, GBRMPA 2014). Amongst the most obviously shifted systems are around population centres and in the southern Great Barrier Reef (GBRMPA 2014). As elsewhere, fishing pressure has eased over the past 5 years, but other pressures (e.g. from increasing development) have increased (AIMS 2014). Overall trophic structures likely remain highly modified, both by past and present removal of predatory species and shifts in abundance of basal species, due to eutrophication or habitat removal (GBRMPA 2014, Fulton and Gorton 2014). The ecosystems of northern, western, southwestern and southern Australia see less direct, and spatially more variable, pressure than those in the east and south east. Over the past 3 decades, fishing pressure in the region has significantly declined, and has continued to do so (though at a reduced rate) over the past 5 years (Prince et al. 2008, Patterson et al. 2014, Fletcher and Santoro 2015). Development of other sectors (e.g. shipping) has grown, but largely concentrated on specific locations (AIMS

The Marine chapter of the 2016 State of the Environment (SoE) report incorporates multiple expert templates developed from streams of marine data. This metadata record describes the Expert Assessment "The state and trends of quality of species and groups – Epipelagic fish species". The full Expert Assessment, including figures and tables (where provided), is attached to this record. Where available, the Data Stream(s) used to generate this Expert Assessment are accessible through the "On-line Resources" section of this record. DESCRIPTION OF ECOLOGICAL SPECIES/COMMUNITY FOR EXPERT ASSESSMENT Australia’s coastal small pelagic fishes (<50 cm) include species such as Australian Sardines, Maray, Blue and Sandy Sprats, Australian anchovy, scads, Jack Mackerel, hardyheads, silversides, Blue mackerel, Australian Herring and Redbait. Tropical and temperate assemblages are comprised of different species and there are also regional differences in species composition (Hobday et al. 2009). This assessment refers only to temperate species in the East, South-east and South-west regions. Blue Mackerel, Common Jack Mackerel, Redbait and Australian Sardine (off eastern Australia only) are targeted by the Commonwealth Small Pelagic Fishery. The SPF is managed in two Zones: East spanning half of the East and eastern South-east regions and the West spanning the South west and western half of South-east). State fisheries primarily target Australian Sardine but may also take Australian Anchovy, Blue Mackerel, sprats and Maray. DATA STREAM(S) USED IN EXPERT ASSESSMENT The assessment is based on data and analyses published in the peer review literature, stock assessment reports and minutes of the meetings of the Small Pelagic Fishery Scientific Panel. Details of specific data sets used to generate the assessment have not been provided. 2016 SOE ASSESSMENT SUMMARY [see attached Expert Assessment for full details] • 2016 • Assessment grade: Good Assessment trend: Stable Confidence grade: Adequate high quality evidence and high level of consensus Confidence trend: Adequate high quality evidence and high level of consensus Comparability: Grade and trend are comparable to the 2011 assessment • 2011 • Assessment grade: Good Assessment trend: Stable Confidence grade: Adequate high quality evidence and high level of consensus Confidence trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus CHANGES SINCE 2011 SOE ASSESSMENT Additional fishery catch data, more recent stock assessments.

The Marine chapter of the 2016 State of the Environment (SoE) report incorporates multiple expert templates developed from streams of marine data. This metadata record describes the Expert Assessment "The state and trends of habitats and communities - water column, slope (250 m -700 m)". The full Expert Assessment, including figures and tables (where provided), is attached to this record. Where available, the Data Stream(s) used to generate this Expert Assessment are accessible through the "On-line Resources" section of this record. DESCRIPTION OF HABITAT/COMMUNITY FOR EXPERT ASSESSMENT The major determinants of pelagic habitat can be considered to be temperature (T), salinity (S), light, nutrients, dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, and food availability. The slope waters around Australia are generally warm, saline, well illuminated, low in nutrients, phytoplankton, zooplankton and fish. The primary pressures affecting the pelagic biota in slope waters are related to climatic cycles (e.g. ENSO) and long term climate change impacting on T, S, DO, pH and fishing. The slope waters are particularly sensitive to changes in our boundary currents, the EAC and the Leeuwin which generally flow south, seaward of the shelf break. The pelagic productivity of the slope waters provides most of the food to animals in these waters and on the bottom. The shelf edge canyons can enhance upwelling or ‘capture’ eddies that act to focus phytoplankton into these features. Data collection is sparse but IMOS continuous plankton recorder (CPR) routes around Australia sample largely from this region. DATA STREAM(S) USED IN EXPERT ASSESSMENT Data are computed from the level 3 (L3) daily global products using one merging method following Maritorena and Siegel, (2005). Details can be found at http://www.globcolour.info/products_description.html 2016 SOE ASSESSMENT SUMMARY [see attached Expert Assessment for full details] • 2016 • Assessment grade: Good Assessment trend: Unclear Confidence grade: Limited evidence or limited consensus Confidence trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus Comparability: Grade and trend are comparable to the 2011 assessment • 2011 • Assessment grade: Good Assessment trend: Stable Confidence grade: Limited evidence or limited consensus Confidence trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus CHANGES SINCE 2011 SOE ASSESSMENT This assessment uses observations from a greater range of spatial and temporal scales allowing a much better assessment of current state and trends to be made. There is also a statistical analysis of temporal change in zooplankton biomass.

The Marine chapter of the 2016 State of the Environment (SoE) report incorporates multiple expert templates developed from streams of marine data. This metadata record describes the Expert Assessment "The state and trends of quality of habitats and communities – seabed, inner shelf (0 - 25 m)". The full Expert Assessment, including figures and tables (where provided), is attached to this record. Where available, the Data Stream(s) used to generate this Expert Assessment are accessible through the "On-line Resources" section of this record. DESCRIPTION OF HABITAT/COMMUNITY FOR EXPERT ASSESSMENT The inner shelf seabed consist of a mix of habitats that range from rocky reef through coral reef, seagrass, algae and soft sediment, although this assessment focusses on open coast unvegetated soft sediment habitats on the inner shelf (0-25 m depth) as the other inshore habitats are assessed in other SoE metrics. Note that this assessment differs slightly from that in 2011 that focussed on the 0-50 m depth range, and it is assumed was also confined to soft sediment habitat. It concluded that the overall condition was good at a national scale, but poor in the SE and East, was likely to be stable, but it was based on limited evidence and trends from the previous assessment. Inner shelf soft sediment habitats are usually dominated by coarse to fine sand in exposed coast locations but can grade to finer silts in sheltered habitats with nearby estuarine inputs and with depth. In specific locations, significant habitat mapping and/or biodiversity sampling programs have substantially improved knowledge of the spatial distribution of these habitats, and have provided an initial description of their current condition (e.g. Barrett et al. 2001; Pitcher et al. 2007ab, 2016; Jordan et al. 2010, Kangas et al. 2007, Currie et al. , 2003, 2009). However, at a national scale there is currently no integration and synthesis of this information on which to base condition assessments. In addition, there is little information to assess the extent of temporal trends or habitat degradation from baseline conditions. Despite this, there are a number of threats that can be identified and assessed to determine the potential current trends. These include trawling (through physical disturbance of the seabed), sedimentation/nitrification, and the spread of introduced pest species. DATA STREAM(S) USED IN EXPERT ASSESSMENT Assessment is based on data and analyses published in peer reviewed literature and agency reports. Details of specific data sets used to generate the assessment have not been provided. 2016 SOE ASSESSMENT SUMMARY [see attached Expert Assessment for full details] • 2016 • Assessment grade: Good Assessment trend: Unclear Confidence grade: Limited evidence or limited consensus Confidence trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus Comparability: Grade and trend are comparable to the 2011 assessment • 2011 • Assessment grade: Good Assessment trend: Stable Confidence grade: Limited evidence or limited consensus Confidence trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus CHANGES SINCE 2011 SOE ASSESSMENT Not clear on what basis and how the 2011 was conducted. Note that this assessment differs slightly from the 2011 assessment which was focused on the 0-50 m depth range, and it is assumed was also confined to soft sediment habitat.

The Marine chapter of the 2016 State of the Environment (SoE) report incorporates multiple expert templates developed from streams of marine data. This metadata record describes the Expert Assessment "The state and trends of quality of habitats and communities – seabed, outer shelf (25 m - 250 m)". The full Expert Assessment, including figures and tables (where provided), is attached to this record. Where available, the Data Stream(s) used to generate this Expert Assessment are accessible through the "On-line Resources" section of this record. DESCRIPTION OF HABITAT/COMMUNITY FOR EXPERT ASSESSMENT The outer shelf seabed consists primarily of unconsolidated sediments but also includes a mix of other habitats that range from stable gravels and rocky reef through mesophotic and relict coral reefs. However, the condition of several of these habitats are assessed via other SoE metrics, including deepwater corals and sponges, bryozoan reef, seagrasses, algae and coral reefs, so this assessment focusses on the condition of sedimentary habitats on the mid to outer shelf (25-250 m depth). Indeed, depths of 25 m to 50 m are commonly found on the inner shelf as well, so despite the “Outer shelf” in the title, this assessment is based on all waters on the shelf deeper than 25m. Note that this assessment differs slightly from the 2011 assessment that focussed on the 50-200 m depth range, and it isn’t clear from the 2011 assessment notes whether that assessment was confined to soft sediment habitat; it is assumed that this was the case. The 2011 assessment indicated the overall condition was good at a national scale but was poor in the SE and East, and that these conditions were likely to be stable- based on limited evidence and trends based on the previous assessment. Given that bottom trawling is likely to be the main pressure on soft-sediment habitat in this depth range, it is assumed that the 2011 assessment was based on perceptions of regional patterns in expected trawl impact. Soft sediment habitats in the 25-250 m depth range are usually dominated by coarse to fine sand in exposed coast locations at shallower depths that tends to grade to finer sand/silts with increasing depth, but with a strong overlay on this gradient whereby increasing seabed stress in response to swells and currents sweeps away fine fractions thus leaving coarser sands and gravels. Muddy and unstable sediments tend to have little epibenthic cover, but such bio-genic cover can be higher in stable coarse sediments where currents are stronger but not excessive. In addition, at shallower depths (25-50m) the seabed may have little epibenthic cover due to disturbance by swells, but this cover may increase as wave energy declines below 50 m and the fauna may include a moderate cover of sponges, bryozoans, octocorals and hydroids. Upwellings and productivity may also be an important driver of shelf bio-genic habitats. Recent IMOS AUV surveys using high resolution imagery have indicated that a turfing layer of bryozoans, hydroids and other epibenthic fauna may be an extensive feature in many offshore locations. While cover of habitat-forming epifauna is lower on fine sediments, it is often still a significant component on coarser sediments that enhances benthic biodiversity in deep shelf waters by providing complex structural living spaces for a large number of species from a variety of taxa (Pitcher et al. 2007a, Buhl-Mortensen et al. 2010, Fromont et al. 2012). Such biological assemblages are generally fragile and readily disturbed by activities such as benthic trawling and large storm events. Nevertheless, the primarily unconsolidated sediments of the outer shelf seabed tend to be dominated by mobile invertebrates such as crustaceans, echinoderms and molluscs, with deposit/detritus feeding types typifying finer sediments and suspension feeding types typifying coarser sediments. Our knowledge of these taxa in Australian waters at shelf depths stems mainly from a few

The Marine chapter of the 2016 State of the Environment (SoE) report incorporates multiple expert templates developed from streams of marine data. This metadata record describes the Expert Assessment "The state and trends of ecological communities – algal beds". The full Expert Assessment, including figures and tables (where provided), is attached to this record. Where available, the Data Stream(s) used to generate this Expert Assessment are accessible through the "On-line Resources" section of this record. DESCRIPTION OF ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITY FOR EXPERT ASSESSMENT Algal beds are generally thought of as algae associated with hard substratum such as rocky reefs that provides a strong point of attachment for algae to grow and maintain position. The majority of Australia’s algal beds are found in temperate waters and are in many cases replaced as the major habitat forming benthic organisms by corals in more tropical environments where intense grazing by herbivorous fishes contains algal biomass, particularly in clear offshore waters. The changeover from temperate algal covered reefs to coral dominated reefs is a gradual transition, but, as a broad generalisation, is considered to be in the vicinity of the Abrohlos Islands in Western Australia and Brisbane in Queensland, and is driven by the northern limit of the canopy forming kelp, Ecklonia radiata. Throughout this range, algal beds are found from the intertidal zone down to approximately 30 m depth where light availability limits growth. Despite this, lower limits may be much reduced in turbid or coloured water, or substantially exceed this in clear offshore water. Algal beds are composed of many constituent species with more than 1500 species of red, brown and green algae known from temperate and tropical Australia. Despite this, the overall canopy forming species are dominated by a far smaller subset of species, including Ecklonia radiata (the common kelp) which tends to be the dominant habitat former and most conspicuous species on temperate reefs, particularly on moderate to high energy coasts where it can form an extensive monospecific canopy above other algae. Given this ecological dominance which is consistent at continental scales, the overall health and extent of Ecklonia is considered to be a suitable indicator of the state of algal beds in general. Despite this, Ecklonia is typically replaced as a dominant species by Sargassum and Cystophora species in sheltered waters such as the Tasmanian north coast and upper reaches of South Australian gulfs, and may replace other species that are under stress (such as Macrocystis pyrifera in Tasmania, the giant kelp or Scytothalia dorycarpa in Western Australia). Hence understanding the condition of algal beds can often require a region-specific knowledge of trends in key species in addition to Ecklonia. DATA STREAM(S) USED IN EXPERT ASSESSMENT The assessment is predominantly based on data and analyses published in peer review papers. Data has been used from IMOS, The Reef Life Survey, and various state based ecological monitoring programs associated with the establishment of coastal MPAs. Details of specific data sets used to generate the assessment have not been provided. 2016 SOE ASSESSMENT SUMMARY [see attached Expert Assessment for full details] • 2016 • Assessment grade: Good Assessment trend: Stable to deteriorating Confidence grade: Adequate high quality evidence and high level of consensus Confidence trend: Adequate high quality evidence and high level of consensus Comparability: Grade and trend are somewhat comparable to the 2011 assessment • 2011 • Assessment grade: Very good Assessment trend: Stable Confidence grade: Limited evidence or limited consensus Confidence trend: Adequate high quality evidence and high level of consensus CHANGES SINCE 2011 SOE ASSESSMENT Uncertain.

The Marine chapter of the 2016 State of the Environment (SoE) report incorporates multiple expert templates developed from streams of marine data. This metadata record describes the Expert Assessment "The state and trends of physical, biogeochemical and biological processes – Marine connectivity based on physical processes". The full Expert Assessment, including figures and tables (where provided), is attached to this record. Where available, the Data Stream(s) used to generate this Expert Assessment are accessible through the "On-line Resources" section of this record. DESCRIPTION OF ECOLOGICAL PROCESS FOR EXPERT ASSESSMENT Marine biological connectivity around Australia is driven by physical processes such as winds, waves, tides and currents, that operate across a wide range of time and space scales. These water movements carry and disperse dissolved substances (nutrients and chemical pollutants) and particulates (sediments, marine debris and planktonic organisms) that are critical to the functioning of marine ecosystems. High connectivity can have positive or negative influences on ecosystem components depending on the circumstances, as can low connectivity (i.e. high retention). For example, transport of eggs and larvae from spawning grounds to nursery areas may be critical to successful breeding, but may also contribute to the spread of harmful species. Over Australia’s mid- and inner- continental shelves circulation and connectivity patterns tend to be dominated by wind and tidal influences, while the offshore environment is strongly influenced by major currents systems including the poleward flowing Leeuwin Current (LC) in the west and its extension along the southern Australian coast to Tasmania, and the East Australia Current (EAC) in the east. The strength of these currents varies with decadal forcing cycles, such as ENSO, SAM, and IOD, and in some locations there is also evidence of long-term connectivity change consistent with climate change. For example, increased southward flow of the EAC (Ridgway 2007) has been associated with major southward range extensions for almost 100 species (Frusher et al 2014; Sunday et al 2015). This represents a major increase in connectivity between northern and southern biological populations along the eastern seaboard. In contrast, this southern extension may have reduced connectivity in the south-to-north direction. DATA STREAM(S) USED IN EXPERT ASSESSMENT Published papers. CSIRO creates and maintains models used to study dispersal (Bluelink – BRAN product). IMOS holds data on ocean current strength, individual researchers hold data on species of interest. Report Cards have started to explicitly include connectivity as an indicator - http://ghhp.org.au/report-cards/2015/environmental. 2016 SOE ASSESSMENT SUMMARY [see attached Expert Assessment for full details] • 2016 • Assessment grade: Poor Assessment trend: Deteriorating Confidence grade: Limited evidence or limited consensus Confidence trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus Comparability: Grade and trend are not directly comparable to the 2011 assessment • 2011 • Connectivity – spatial/physical disjunctions Assessment grade: Very good Assessment trend: Stable Confidence grade & trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus • 2011 • Connectivity – biological, migration, flyways Assessment grade: Good Assessment trend: Deteriorating Confidence grade & trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus • 2011 • Connectivity – recruitment, settlement Assessment grade: Good Assessment trend: Stable Confidence grade & trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus • 2011 • Connectivity – genome structures, genetic adaptation Assessment grade: Good Assessment trend: Stable Confidence grade & trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus CHANGES SINCE 2011 SOE ASSESSMENT Unclear how the 2011 assessment was done.

The Marine chapter of the 2016 State of the Environment (SoE) report incorporates multiple expert templates developed from streams of marine data. This metadata record describes the Expert Assessment "The state and trends of habitats and communities - water column, outer shelf (25 m - 250 m)". The full Expert Assessment, including figures and tables (where provided), is attached to this record. Where available, the Data Stream(s) used to generate this Expert Assessment are accessible through the "On-line Resources" section of this record. DESCRIPTION OF HABITAT/COMMUNITY FOR EXPERT ASSESSMENT The water column is the primary habitat for pelagic communities that are mainly phytoplankton, bacteria, zooplankton and higher predators (in the ratios of ~300:75:10:1, respectively: Marchant 2002) and their biomass declines exponentially with depth (Rex et al., 2006). The major determinants of habitat quality for most pelagic organisms can be considered to be temperature (T), salinity (S), light, nutrients, dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, and food availability. The continental shelf waters around Australia are generally warm, saline, well illuminated, low in nutrients, and abundances of phytoplankton (Fig. 1), zooplankton (Fig. 2) and fish. Relative to the seasonal variability for the majority of the water column on the outer shelf there have been modest long term changes to these components of the habitat and its communities. Overall its current status should be considered good. The major potential threats that could reduce the existing flora and fauna can be considered to be: inputs from the terrestrial environment (sediments, nutrients, carbon), development, warming, declining [DO], decreasing pH and fishing. While there are areas of local habitat degradation (e.g. near ports and harbours) the overall impacts of local pressures tend to be low as Australia is a large area with a relatively sparse human population. There is increasing evidence our shelf waters are experiencing change due to the global pressures; some of which are deleterious. Shelf waters from Port Hedland to Cape Howe have risen ~ 1°C from 1993 to 2013 (Foster et al., 2014), and portions of the SW region were 3°C warmer during February 2011 than normal (Pearce and Feng 2013). There is evidence that dissolved oxygen has declined (Thompson et al. 2009) and continues to decline due to warming (Talley et al., 2016) plus concerns over acidification continue to grow (Mongin et al., 2016). Already there is clear evidence of community responses by phytoplankton, zooplankton and fish to these climatic pressures (e.g. Johnson et al. 2011). DATA STREAM(S) USED IN EXPERT ASSESSMENT Data are computed from the level 3 (L3) daily global products using one merging method following Maritorena and Siegel, (2005). Details can be found at http://www.globcolour.info/products_description.html Zooplankton data are from Australia’s National Reference Stations operated by the Integrated Marine Observing System. 2016 SOE ASSESSMENT SUMMARY [see attached Expert Assessment for full details] • 2016 • Assessment grade: Good Assessment trend: Unclear Confidence grade: Limited evidence or limited consensus Confidence trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus Comparability: Grade and trend are somewhat comparable to the 2011 assessment • 2011 • Assessment grade: Good Assessment trend: Stable Confidence grade: Limited evidence or limited consensus Confidence trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus CHANGES SINCE 2011 SOE ASSESSMENT This assessment uses observations from a greater range of spatial and temporal scales allowing a much better assessment of current state and trends to be made. There is also a statistical analysis of temporal change in zooplankton biomass.

The Marine chapter of the 2016 State of the Environment (SoE) report incorporates multiple expert templates developed from streams of marine data. This metadata record describes the Expert Assessment "The state and trends of quality of habitats and communities – canyons". The full Expert Assessment, including figures and tables (where provided), is attached to this record. Where available, the Data Stream(s) used to generate this Expert Assessment are accessible through the "On-line Resources" section of this record. DESCRIPTION OF ECOLOGICAL HABITAT/COMMUNITY FOR EXPERT ASSESSMENT Submarine canyons are a class of geomorphic seabed feature used as a physical surrogate for biodiversity distribution during Australia’s marine planning process and in designing the network of Commonwealth Marine Reserves. They are one of two ‘special’ feature types (together with seamounts) (Harris et al., 2008) believed to have potentially high influence on and value for marine biodiversity distribution and protection. It is these characteristics that have been used to define some canyons as Marine Key Ecological Features (Department of the Environment, 2012). Submarine canyons are located on all sides of the Australian continental margin. They form deeply incised networks of valleys and channels that extend from the continental shelf edge (<200 m water depth) to the foot of the continental slope (>4000 m water depth). Based on a recent compilation of all available bathymetric data for the Australian EEZ, a total of 713 submarine canyons are now mapped on the continental margin, with an additional 40 canyons that fringe islands within the external territories (Table 1; Huang et al., 2014). The majority (618) of the mapped canyons are classified as ‘blind canyons’, meaning that they are located only on the continental slope and terminate at their head in water depths of ~500 to 1000 m. The other 95 canyons are classified as ‘shelf-incising’ canyons that extend from the slope onto the continental shelf, with canyon heads that define an abrupt depth transition between the slope and shelf of up to 400 m. Between Marine Planning Regions canyons vary in number and spatial distribution. Thus, canyons are most abundant in the South-East (206 canyons) and South-West (204) Marine Regions, with the latter having the higher proportion (51) of shelf-incising canyons. The Temperate East has 124 canyons. In contrast, the North-West and North Marine Regions incorporate 90 and 6 canyons, respectively. Within canyons, the seabed is characteristically irregular with underlying substrate exposed along steep canyon walls, in places forming undersea cliffs hundreds of metres high. These localised areas of hard rock outcrop provide a stable surface for benthic biological communities, including sponges, corals and associated sessile flora and feeding grounds for demersal fishes (Schlacher et al., 2007; Fromont and Pisera, 2011; Currie and Sorokin, 2014; Kloser et al., 2014). Canyons also provide a pathway for the transport of sediments and nutrients, not only laterally from the shelf to the deep sea, but also vertically via upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich waters from the deep ocean toward the shelf (Kampf, 2010; Currie et al. 2012). This effect is now better understood through the modelling of larval dispersal, as driven by ocean currents. The modelling shows that more topographically complex canyons are potential settlement sites for marine larvae. For example, the canyons in the Albany Canyon Group which intersects the Leeuwin Current along the southwest margin are modelled as larval sinks, including the large Bremer Canyon and Wilson Canyon. DATA STREAM(S) USED IN EXPERT ASSESSMENT National Submarine Canyons of Australia [Geoscience Australia data product] 2016 SOE ASSESSMENT SUMMARY [see attached Expert Assessment for full details] • 2016 • Assessment grade: Good but poor in the South-East Assessment trend: Unclear Confidence grade: Limited evidence and limited

The Marine chapter of the 2016 State of the Environment (SoE) report incorporates multiple expert templates developed from streams of marine data. This metadata record describes the Expert Assessment "The state and trends of quality of species and groups – seabirds". The full Expert Assessment, including figures and tables (where provided), is attached to this record. Where available, the Data Stream(s) used to generate this Expert Assessment are accessible through the "On-line Resources" section of this record. DESCRIPTION OF TAXONOMIC GROUP FOR EXPERT ASSESSMENT There are presently 57 species of seabirds known to breed in and around Australia and the external territories of Cocos (Keeling) and Christmas Island, Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands, Ashmore and Cartier Islands, and the Coral Sea islands. These 57 species are comprised of penguins (1 species), albatrosses (1 species), petrels, shearwaters and storm-petrels (19 species), boobies, tropicbirds, frigatebirds, cormorants and pelican (16 species) and gulls, tern, and noddies (20 species). Another 130 species of seabirds have been recorded in Australia, either as non-breeding or vagrant. Shorebirds are not considered here, nor are issues associated with nesting or onshore breeding colonies as these are assessed under the Coasts chapter. Species breeding on subantarctic islands and the Antarctic continent are assessed under the Antarctic chapter. DATA STREAM(S) USED IN EXPERT ASSESSMENT The assessment was based on data and analyses published in the peer reviewed literature and agency reports. Details on the specific data products used in this assessment have not been provided. 2016 SOE ASSESSMENT SUMMARY [see attached Expert Assessment for full details] • 2016 • Assessment grade: Good Assessment trend: Unclear Confidence grade: Limited evidence or limited consensus Confidence trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus Comparability: Grade and trend are somewhat comparable to the 2011 assessment • 2011 • Assessment grade: Good Assessment trend: Stable Confidence grade: Limited evidence or limited consensus Confidence trend: Limited evidence or limited consensus CHANGES SINCE 2011 SOE ASSESSMENT Unclear how the 2011 assessment was carried out and on what data. There is very little data on trends in populations available and so the trend cannot be regarded as stable but rather unclear.