Appendix F19 Gilmore et al. 2008 The Status of Shallow-water Coral and Fish Communities at Scott Reef Annual Report, 2008 BROWSE FLNG DEVELOPMENT Draft Environmental Impact Statement EPBC 2013/7079 November 2014 SRRP ANNUAL REPORT: PROJECT 1 The Status of Shallow-Water Coral and Fish Communities at Scott Reef: 2008 JP Gilmour, MJ Travers, JN Underwood, DW McKinney, EN Gates, CL Birrell, KL Fitzgerald PRODUCED FOR WOODSIDE ENERGY LIMITED as agent for the BROWSE JOINT VENTURE PARTNERS PERTH Document details: Submitted: 30 September 2008 Reviewed: 5 November 2008 Final : 25 February 2009 SRRP-RP-RT-0015 30 September 2008 Rev 0 SRRP ANNUAL REPORT: PROJECT 1 Australian Institute of Marine Science: PMB No 3 Townsville MC QLD 4810 Botany Building (M096) University of Western Australia Crawley WA 6009 PO Box 40197 Casuarina NT 0811 This report should be cited as: Gilmour JP, Travers MJ, Underwood, JN, McKinney DW, Gates EN, Birrell CL, Fitzgerald KL (2008) The status of shallow-water coral and fish communities at Scott Reef. Report to the Browse Joint Venture Partners. Australian Institute of Marine Science, Perth Western Australia. (66pp.). © Copyright: Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) & Woodside Energy Limited (WEL) 2008 All rights are reserved and no part of this document may be reproduced, stored or copied in any form or by any means whatsoever except with the prior written permission of AIMS and WEL. DISCLAIMER The Australian Institute of Marine Science does not make any representation or give any warranty regarding the accuracy, completeness, currency or suitability for any particular purpose of the information contained in this report. To the extent permitted by law, the Australian Institute of Marine Science does not accept any responsibility for and excludes all liability arising out of the use of or reliance on any information contained in this report. SRRP-RP-RT-0015 30 September 2008 Rev 0 SRRP ANNUAL REPORT: PROJECT 1 Contents List of Figures................................................................................................................... i List of Tables................................................................................................................... ii Preamble ........................................................................................................................ iii Specific Response to WEL Questions.......................................................................... iv 1.1 Long Term Monitoring...................................................................................................................... iv 1.2 Coral Demography .......................................................................................................................... viii 1.3 Genetic Connectivity of Coral and Fish .......................................................................................ix 1.4 Coral Reproduction and Recruitment ...........................................................................................x Executive Summary ....................................................................................................... 1 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................3 1.1 Long Term Monitoring.......................................................................................................................3 1.2 Coral Demography .............................................................................................................................6 1.3 Genetic Connectivity..........................................................................................................................6 1.4 Coral Reproduction and Recruitment ...........................................................................................7 1.5 Deep Water Communities ...............................................................................................................8 2 Materials and Methods...............................................................................................9 2.1 Long Term Monitoring.......................................................................................................................9 2.2 Coral Demography ...........................................................................................................................11 2.3 Genetic Connectivity of Coral and Fish ......................................................................................11 2.4 Coral Reproduction and Recruitment .........................................................................................12 2.5 Physical Data.......................................................................................................................................14 2.6 Deep Water Communities .............................................................................................................15 3 Results and Discussion .............................................................................................17 3.1 Long Term Monitoring.....................................................................................................................17 3.2 Coral Demography ...........................................................................................................................30 3.3 Genetic Connectivity of Coral and Fish ......................................................................................33 3.4 Coral Reproduction and Recruitment .........................................................................................34 3.5 Physical Data.......................................................................................................................................40 3.6 Deep Water Communities .............................................................................................................42 References.....................................................................................................................43 Appendices....................................................................................................................47 SRRP-RP-RT-0015 30 September 2008 Rev 0 SRRP ANNUAL REPORT: PROJECT 1 SRRP-RP-RT-0015 30 September 2008 Rev 0 SRRP ANNUAL REPORT: PROJECT 1 List of Figures Fig. 1 Track of category 5 Cyclone Fay along long the north-Western Australian coastline, and directly over Scott Reef. Insert, meteorological picture illustrating the scale of Cyclone Fay adjacent to Western Australia....................................5 Fig. 2 Track of Tropical Cyclone Raymond in 2005................................................................................ 5 Fig. 3 Track of Tropical Cyclone George in 2007. .................................................................................. 5 Fig. 4 Study sites at Scott Reef and Rowley Shoals................................................................................10 Fig. 5 Sediment trap attached to star picket….......................................................................................15 Fig. 6 Sediment filtration manifold.. ...........................................................................................................15 Fig. 7 Deep water grab sites at South Scott lagoon in 2008 ...............................................................16 Fig. 8 Changes in the mean cover of hard and soft corals at all monitoring sites across Scott Reef. Mass-coral bleaching occurred in 1998...............................................................17 Fig. 9 Absolute changes in percentage cover of hard corals at locations across Scott Reef; the bleaching occurred in 1998, Cyclone Fay in 2004 and Cyclone George in 2006. B) Percentage recovery of coral cover to pre-bleaching levels (1997) through time at locations across Scott Reef; recovery is at 100% when mean coral cover is that same as that prior to the bleaching in 1997..............................18 Fig. 10 Changes in the mean cover of the dominant families of hard corals at all monitoring sites across Scott Reef. Mass-coral bleaching occurred in 1998. .................19 Fig. 11 Temporal variation in percentage cover of benthic groups at sites at Scott Reef; Algae group is predominantly turfing and coralline algae, and not macroalgae. Sites are in order of increasing impact following the bleaching. B) Absolute changes in percentage cover of benthic groups at sites between selected surveys: 1997 compared to 1998; 1998 compared to 2004; 2004 compared to 2008.........................................................................................................................22 Fig. 12 Non-metric multidimensional scaling (nMDS) ordinations of the compositions of benthic assemblages at Scott Reef between 1994 and 2008. Ordinations for (a) the benthic composition in each year averaged across all locations (b) for all samples coded for year group and (c to h) for each of the six locations separately.........................................................................................................................................23 Fig. 13 Total fish species and familial richness at the Rowely Shoals, Scott Reef and Ashmore Reef.................................................................................................................................25 Fig. 14 Mean abundance values of pomacentrid fishes at Scott reef between 1994 and 2008. ..................................................................................................................................................26