parks victoria technical series marine natural values study vol 2 ...

Parks Victoria Technical Series No. 79
Flinders and Twofold Shelf Bioregions Marine Natural Values Study
2.1.3 MARINE ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITIES
General
Since the first natural values report by Plummer et al. (2003) there have been several
monitoring, mapping surveys and research projects conducted in Wilsons Promontory MNP
(Edmunds et al. 2007; Edmunds et al. 2009). The new data for fish abundances,
distributions or interactions is generally limited to shallow subtidal reef habitats (Colton and
Swearer 2009; Colton and Swearer 2010), with some research focussing on deeper reefs
(Edmunds et al. 2009). Important locations for some birds and mammals are shown in
Figure 8. Surveys in the MNP found red algae dominate the diversity of macrophytes,
gastropods and echinoderms the invertebrates and fish the vertebrates in Wilsons
Promontory MNP (Table 2, Appendix 1). There is no new information on the ecological
communities of sandy beaches and intertidal soft sediments and there is presently no
information available for water column assemblages.
Table 2. Summary of the number of species in major biotic groups from surveys in Wilsons
Promontory Marine National Park.
Biotic group
Number of species
Macrophytes 145
Green algae 16
Brown algae 49
Red algae 79
Seagrasses 1
Invertebrates 121
Cnidaria 3
Polychaetes 1
Barnacles 5
Decapod
12
Sea
t
spiders 3
Chitons 6
Gastropods 43
Bivalves 5
Sea slugs 7
Cephalopods 2
Echinoderms 38
Vertebrates 195
Ascidians 1
Fish 137
Birds 60
Reptiles 3
Mammals 9
14