The structural and functional diversity of the shallow-water benthic community at Dunlop Island and Spike Cape

A minimum of three sites, separated by at least 50m and accessed through separate dive holes were surveyed. Two 20m transect lines were laid on the seafloor within the 15-25m depth stratum starting from haphazardly chosen starting points.

The transects were videoed using a diver-held digital video camera at a fixed height of (a) 70cm above the bottom (for the broader scale analysis of habitat structure) and (b) 40cm above the bottom (to allow for more accurate species identifications). Along one of the 20m transects, core samples were collected from five randomly chosen positions. At each position, two small sediment cores (20mm diam., 50mm deep) were collected, one to determine sediment grain size and benthic chlorophyll a content and one to determine the natural stable isotope signature of the sediment.