WAMSI Node 4.2.1b - Development and validation of an estuarine health index for the Swan Estuary

Updated: 2017-11-21

This project (WAMSI Node 4.2.1b) aimed to develop an index for assessing the health of the Swan Estuary, based on fish assemblage characteristics. The index incorporates a suite of metrics, each of which measures a different aspect of the fish community, e.g. species diversity and composition, use of the Estuary as a nursery habitat, and the trophic structure (the feeding relationships between species) of the estuarine fish community.The study incorporated and utilized historical data from 1977-2004, plus current sampling (2007-2009), to establish reference conditions for multiple fish community metrics, against which the recent, current and future status of the estuary is assessed. Data is available as two Excel spreadsheets: Establishing_reference_and_scoring_seine_Metrics.xls Establishing_reference_and_scoring_gill_Metrics.xls The gill net and seine net files contain, respectively, for each offshore and nearshore historical fish sample collected between 1976 and 2009: (i) the raw values calculated for each of the selected fish metrics comprising the offshore and nearshore health indices; (ii) the corresponding metric scores (i.e. scored in comparison to the appropriate reference conditions I derived for each metric); and (iii) the final health index scores for each historical sample. The historical studies used in the project are all detailed in the final report.