The reefs of the west Kimberley fringe rocky islands, forming platforms above plunging inter-island channels. They are built by a mixture of coral and coralline algae, and some support seagrass communities in sandy back-reef lagoons. They spend part of the time exposed due to the Kimberley s famous tides (which have a range of up to 10m in the west Kimberley).Late in 2012, researchers from The University of Western Australia began a four-year field study of the west Kimberley reefs. Current understanding of reefs has arisen from studies in wave-dominated environments, and many reefs around the world are in highly degraded condition, which is why understanding pristine, tidally-dominated reefs is so important to both scientists and managers.
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