Infaunal biodiversity and ecological function on a remote oceanic island: The role of biogeography and bio-physical surrogates

High coral cover on a mesophotic, subtropical island platform at the limits of coral reef growth

“…The occurrence of modern coral growth on fossil reef structures at Balls Pyramid highlights the role of antecedent topography in providing substrate for coral colonisation. influencing benthic community distribution supports previous studies which have linked geomorphology to infaunal (Brooke et al, 2012;Anderson et al, 2013) and epifaunal (Przeslawski et al, 2011) assemblages on the Lord Howe Island shelf and Lord Howe Rise.…”

Interlinking backscatter, grain size and benthic community structure

“…Cochrane and Lafferty, 2002;Kostylev et al, 2001). The close association between functional assemblages and substratum (Anderson, 2008;Anderson et al, 2012;Clarke et al, 2008;Gray and Elliott, 2009;Snelgrove, 1999) has given way to much existing research equating geological classifications to equivalences in terms of benthic community structure (eg. McBreen et al, 2008).…”

Development of a Seamless, High-Resolution Bathymetric Model to Compare Reef Morphology around the Subtropical Island Shelves of Lord Howe Island and Balls Pyramid, Southwest Pacific Ocean

“…Previous studies of the distribution of benthic assemblages around the island shelves and broader Lord Howe region have shown strong correlations to geomorphic features and shelf regions [31,32,37,[55][56][57]. Abundant hard corals were recently discovered growing on the mid-shelf reef of Balls Pyramid, showing increased abundance associated with the mid-and outer-shelf reef features [37].…”

“…The outer shelf pavement has been characterised as an area of sand veneers and rhodolith beds [32,37,55], with gorgonian whips and fans observed on the outer shelf and shelf break [37,55]. Investigations of benthic invertebrates around the Lord Howe Island shelf have shown that the infaunal benthic community structure was significantly different between geomorphic zones (fossil reef, basins and outer shelf, [56]). …”