Long-term monitoring of shallow water coral and fish communities at Scott Reef 2014

AIMS undertook field work at Scott Reef in October 2014 to monitor benthic and fish communities in accordance with an on-going Co-investment Agreement with Woodside Energy Ltd (WEL). The Scott Reef Research Project (SRRP) has been running for the past 20 years, and as such, is one of the longest running and most comprehensive studies of coral reef ecosystems in the world, providing unique and valuable insights into tropical coral reef ecology. The scope of the most recent field trip ('SRRP 2014') included on-going long-term monitoring of shallow water coral and fish communities, as well as deployment and recovery of temperature loggers and recovery of sediment traps. All data collection as completed at Scott Reef in October 2014 as outlined in the co-investment contract, of which the analyses and results are presented herein. This 2014 report aims to combine the most recent 2014 data with historic data to answer several key questions relating to benthic and fish communities at Scott Reef, which are: - What was the recent disturbance history for 2012-2014 at Scott Reef and how has this affected coral and fish communities? - Have coral and fish communities recovered from the recent monsoonal storm and cyclone in 2012? - Has community recovery varied among LTM locations? - How are coral and fish communities structured now compared to before the mass coral bleaching in 1998? - What are the key processes underlying recovery of coral and fish communities? - How resilient are communities at Scott Reef in light of the current disturbance regime?