James Cook University Global Ecology Lab Worldwide Coastal Datasets 

"Our work aims to apply cutting-edge analytical techniques to environmental data to study at-risk species and ecosystems worldwide."  

The Global Ecology Lab is led by Dr Nicholas Murray, an Australia-based spatial ecologist who researches tidal wetland ecosystems. 

Datasets & Software From Global Ecology Lab

Global Tidal Flats

Mapping the global distribution and trajectory tidal flat ecosystems. This dataset was created from over seven hundred thousand satellite images to be the first worldwide distribution and change dataset for tidal flats with a thirty year history.

Murray N. J., Phinn S. R., DeWitt M., Ferrari R., Johnston R., Lyons M. B., Clinton N., Thau D. & Fuller R. A. (2019) The global distribution and trajectory of tidal flats. Nature. 565:222-225. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0805-8 

Global Intertidal Change

Designed to monitor change of Earth's intertidal ecosystems. This project contains three datasets: Tidal wetland distribution, Tidal wetland change, Training data.

Murray, N. J., T. A. Worthington, P. Bunting, S. Duce, V. Hagger, C. E. Lovelock, R. Lucas, M. I. Saunders, M. Sheaves, M. Spalding, N. J. Waltham & M. B. Lyons (2022). "High-resolution mapping of losses and gains of Earth's tidal wetlands." Science. 376, 744-749. doi:10.1126/science.abm9583 

coastTrain

Open-access reference library of coastal ecosystems suitable for training and verifying the latest generation of remote sensing classification models. The classes available in this dataset are: Tidal flat, Mangrove, Coral reef, Tidal marsh, Seagrass, Rocky intertidal, Kelp forest, Other (Land), Other (Water). Github Repo.

Murray, N. J., Bunting, P., Canto, R., Hilarides, L., Kennedy, E. V., Lucas, R., Lyons, M. B., Navarro, A., Roelfsema, C. M., Rosenqvist, A., Spalding, M., Toor, M. & Worthington, T. A. (2022) coastTrain: a global reference library for coastal ecosystems. Remote Sensing. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14225766