Biological data collected on SAIMOS and Innovative Solutions 2 (IS2) projects conducted in Spencer Gulf and on South Australian shelf waters. Multiple cruises over a number of seasons. Hydrology data also available from various CSIRO cruises.

Otter trawl survey of Northern Spencer Gulf, South Australia providing data on patterns of distribution and abundance of fish and invertebrate species. Surveys were done every April from 2000 to 2010.

Prawn abundance, distribution and size structure from fishery-independent surveys throughout Spencer Gulf, South Australia since 1982.

This parameter set was developed to provide a plausible implementation for the ecological model described in Bates, M., S Bengtson Nash, D.W. Hawker, J. Norbury, J.S. Stark and R. A. Cropp. 2015. Construction of a trophically complex near-shore Antarctic food web model using the Conservative Normal framework with structural coexistence. Journal of Marine Systems. 145: 1-14. The ecosystem model used in this paper was designed to have the property of structural coexistence. This means that the functional forms used to describe population interactions in the equations were chosen to ensure that the boundary eigenvalues of every population were all always positive, ensuring that no population in the model can ever become extinct. This property is appropriate for models such as this that are implemented to model typical seasonal variations rather than changes over time. The actual parameter values were determined by searching a parameter space for parameter sets that resulted in a plausible distribution of biomass among the trophic levels. The search was implemented using the Boundary Eigenvalue Nudging - Genetic Algorithm (BENGA) method and was constrained by measured values where these were available. This parameter set is provided as an indicative set that is appropriate for studying the partitioning of Persistent Organic Pollutants in coastal Antarctic ecosystems. It should not be used for predictive population modelling without independent calibration and validation.

This thesis investigates the improvement of forecasting water temperature in a coastal embayment through the assimilation of satellite sea surface temperature (SST). Port Phillip Bay (PPB) in southeastern Australia was used as a case study, where temperature forecasts could be compared against in situ temperature measurements. Over the long term satellite derived SST observations were found to have negligible bias, however a strong diurnal bias was apparent. The model of PPB replicated the main features of PPB well, although the temperature prediction was warm biased. The actual assimilation of SST data was contrasted against a climatology forecast of PPB temperature. The assimilation of SST, without any specific accounting for the diurnal bias improved the forecast, although errors due to observational bias were noted. Attempts to remove this bias using diurnal correction algorithms failed, owing to a larger than expected cool skin. Conditional merging, which combines spatial and in situ observations, was applied to the SST observations and improved forecast accuracy by reducing the observation bias. This work demonstrates that forecasting models can be improved through the assimilation of satellite derived observations. An examination of the assimilation innovations indicated where the forecast accuracy could be further improved.

Measures of abalone biology - length, weight, growth rate in the Spencer Gulf, South Australia.

Data on benthic cover and fish abundance at a number of coastal reefs along the Adelaide coast, Fleurieu Peninsula and Yorke Peninsula, South Australia. Surveyed in 2005 and a subset in 2007.

The Western King Prawn species (Penaeus latisculcatus) is landed from South Australian (SA) waters. The prawn industry in SA is divided into the Gulf St Vincent, Spencer Gulf, and West Coast fisheries. A separate fishery in Investigator Strait operated until 1986/87 when it was amalgamated into the Gulf St Vincent fishery. The Gulf St Vincent fishery was closed in 1991/92 and 1992/93. The West Coast fishery was voluntarily closed in 1992/93. This system monitors catch and effort fluctuations in the state's prawn industry. The quantity of prawns (kg) and effort (hours trawled) to catch the prawns are recorded for each fishing period from records submitted by the trawler operators.

Sea level and meteorological data collected during various projects in Spencer Gulf and Gulf St Vincent, South Australia since 1990.