Kimberley marine biota. Historical data: introduction and methods

WA Museum Records and Supplements | Updated 5 years ago

ABSTRACT – The Kimberley region is currently undergoing substantial growth in industrial and general human use. The region is recognised as relatively pristine with a high diversity of habitats and species, but there is little published information on the marine biodiversity. Australian museums and herbaria are the repositories of species diversity datasets and voucher specimens collected over many decades (1880s to present). We have collated data on marine plants, sponges, cnidarians (predominately hard and soft corals), free living worms (predominately polychaetes), crustaceans, molluscs, echinoderms, brachiopods, ascidians and fishes from five Australian natural science collections. We identified >50,000 specimen records of approximately 6,000 shallow water marine species from the Project Area. The scope and methods adopted for this project are outlined here.