11th ICRS Abstract book - Nova Southeastern University
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11th ICRS Abstract book - Nova Southeastern University

11th ICRS Abstract book - Nova Southeastern University 11th ICRS Abstract book - Nova Southeastern University

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Oral Mini-Symposium 16: Ecosystem Assessment and Monitoring of Coral Reefs - New Technologies and Approaches 16-18 Estimating Three-Dimensional Coral Colony Surface Area from Simple Field Measurements Lee COURTNEY 1 , William FISHER* 1 , Sandy RAIMONDO 1 , Leah OLIVER 1 , William DAVIS 1 1 National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, Gulf Ecology Division, US Environmental Protection Agency, Gulf Breeze, FL Topographic surface area (SA) of coral colonies is a critical descriptor for biological and physical attributes of reef-building (scleractinian) corals. SA is directly related to coral sustainability (e.g., living tissue) and anthropocentric values (e.g., fish habitat, shoreline protection). Most existing methods to estimate colony SA are destructive and limited to laboratory settings. However, a recently-described photographic method was tested and found applicable to field colonies. A highly accurate 3-dimensional digital reconstruction is generated using specialized computer software and multiple images of a coral colony. SA determined from the reconstructed colony is within 2-5% of SA determined by laserscanning. The method was used to evaluate three approaches, or models, for calculating SA of coral colonies from simple morphological measurements made in the field. The models included a volumetric size-class (SA = 5 sides of a cube), a hemispheric surrogate (SA = 2πr2, where r is determined from height, diameter and width), and a suite of loglinear formulae generated from stepwise multiple regression of reconstructed colony SA against colony height, diameter and width. When SA determined using field collected data were compared to SA of reconstructed images, the log-linear model was most accurate (12% difference from reconstruction values), followed by the hemispheric surrogate (17% difference) and size-classes (40% difference). While only four species were included in these analyses (Montastraea faveolata, M. cavernosa, Diploria strigosa and D. clivosa), SA of specimens from seven additional species were credibly estimated (

Oral Mini-Symposium 16: Ecosystem Assessment and Monitoring of Coral Reefs - New Technologies and Approaches 16-22 Interdisciplinary Environmental Assessments of Coral Reefs Using Remote Sensing and Numerical Circulation Models Serge ANDREFOUET 1 , Frank MULLER-KARGER* 2 , Jinyu SHENG 3 , Craig STEINBERG 4 , Pascal DOUILLET 1 , Inia SOTO 2 , Bruce HATCHER 5 , Sylvain OUILLON 1 , Chuanmin HU 2 , Bo YANG 3 , Severine CHOUCKROUN 4 , Guillaume DIRBERG 1 , Christine KRANENBURG 2 , Christopher MOSES 2 1 Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement, Noumea, New Caledonia, 2 College of Marine Science, University of South FLorida, St Petersburg, FL, 3 Dept of Oceanography, Dalhousie University, Dalhousie, NS, Canada, 4 Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville, Australia, 5 Center for Marine Ecosystem Research, Cape Breton University, Sydney, NS, Canada An interdisciplinary international team investigated oceanographic processes that constrain coral reef ecosystems of the Meso-American Barrier Reef System (MBRS), Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and New Caledonia Lagoon (NCL). Reef connectivity, coral bleaching and sediment transport were targeted for MBRS, GBR and NCL respectively. These sites either lacked any in situ data (MBRS) or benefited from extensive time-series of measurements (GBR and NCL). Our methodological goal was to combine numerical circulation models and remote sensing to study the specific processes at each site. The circulation of MBRS was simulated using a nested model to understand larvae propagation between reefs and river runoff dispersals, including during hurricanes. SeaWiFS climatology and time-series were used to investigate connectivity in MBRS and validate model outputs. On the southern GBR, the objective was to enhance prediction of thermal stress at reef-scale. In Both MAR and GBR shallow water bathymetry were computed from Landsat images to improve high resolution model outputs in shallow reef areas. GBR shallow bathymetry was validated against Lidar data. In NCL, numerical models provided suspended matter concentrations under different forcing, and we revisited local Landsat and MODIS optical algorithms for suspended matter estimation. Remote sensing tools quickly provided synoptic information for each site (connectivity matrices, bathymetry, suspended matter) with useful accuracies for model calibration/validation. However, for each site, numerical models were more difficult to adapt to these new calibration/validation data sets due to the computation time and resources required to run new sensitivity analysis. The integration was faster for MBRS, motivated by limited oceanographic field data. Combining numerical output with remote sensing is promising to monitor and hindcast-forecast connectivity, thermal stress and sediment transport and we conclude by the perspectives highlighted by this program. 16-23 Creios: Noaa’s Coral Reef Ecosystem Integrated Observing System Jessica A. MORGAN* 1 , C. Mark EAKIN 2 , Russell E. BRAINARD 3 , James C. HENDEE 4 , Joyce E. MILLER 3 , Mark E. MONACO 5 , Tyler R.L. CHRISTENSEN 1 , Dwight K. GLEDHILL 1 , Scott F. HERON 2 , Gang LIU 1 , William J. SKIRVING 2 , Alan E. STRONG 2 1 IMSG at NOAA Coral Reef Watch, Silver Spring, MD, 2 NOAA Coral Reef Watch, Silver Spring, MD, 3 NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, Honolulu, HI, 4 NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory, Miami, FL, 5 NOAA Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment, Silver Spring, MD Coral reefs are complex ecosystems with high biodiversity and significant economic importance. Modern in situ and satellite-based observations show declining trends of reef health and extent on both local and global scales. With U.S. coral reef resources stretching across 13 time zones, NOAA has responsibility for observing and managing coral reefs over a wide area. To carry out this task, NOAA has implemented an integrated coral reef ecosystem observing system to map and monitor coral reefs, their biota, and their environments. The Coral Reef Ecosystem Integrated Observing System (CREIOS) is an important component of NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) and provides a NOAA contribution to the Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS). The current configuration of CREIOS includes a wide variety of observing systems providing coverage of U.S. coral reef resources in the waters of States, Territories, U.S. flag islands and Freely Associated States in both the Pacific and the Atlantic. Key components include: (1) physical and environmental monitoring using satellite, in situ, and paleoclimatic observations; (2) reef mapping and benthic habitat characterization using satellite, airborne, ship-based, and diver observations; (3) ecological monitoring of benthos, mobile invertebrates, and fishes by divers and instruments; and (4) monitoring for coral bleaching and disease outbreaks by divers. NOAA makes data from these observations accessible through the Coral Reef Information System (CoRIS) and provides integrated information products to satisfy scientific and management needs. 16-24 Ecological Count-Based Measures: How To Prevent And Correct Biases in Spatial Sampling Assaf ZVULONI* 1,2 , Yael ARTZY-RANDRUP 3 , Lewi STONE 3 , Robert VAN WOESIK 4 , Yossi LOYA 1 1 Department of Zoology, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel, 2 The Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences of Eilat, Eilat, Israel, 3 Biomathematics Unit, Department of Zoology, Tel- Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel, 4 Department of Biological Sciences, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL Ecological count-based measures (ECBMs; i.e., measures which relate to the number of individuals in an area), such as population density, size-frequency distribution, average size, species richness and diversity, are often used to assess the ecological status of different populations or communities in a variety of ecosystems. Incorrect evaluations of ECBMs may lead to biased estimations of the ecological status of ecosystems and may result, among other things, in erroneous nature reserve management policies. The major objective of the study is to elucidate biases that can arise in the application of popular and traditional sampling methods (e.g., quadrat, belt-transect and line-intercept) and to develop mathematical corrections, which provide unbiased estimations for present and past collected data. We show that biases on the estimated ECBMs may arise due to boundary effect of the sampling units and that the intensity of the bias increases with proportion to the size-ratio between the sampled individuals and the sampling unit in use. Our analysis is based on analytical calculations, simulations and field observations. We developed simple mathematical corrections, which provide unbiased estimations for presently and previously collected data acquired by these widely used methods. In addition, we offer a decision rule, which do not suffer from these shortcomings. Eliminating these types of sampling errors will not only provide better assessments of the status of a given coral reef, but will also make way for more precise comparisons among coral reefs in different regions. Although we discuss the biases of ECBMs in regard to reef coral populations, the work is equally relevant in other marine and terrestrial ecosystems. 16-25 Considerations in The Design Of A Monitoring Program For Fish And Macrobenthos On A Caribbean Fringing Reef John MCMANUS* 1 , Lee-Ann HAYEK 2 , Felimon GAYANILO 1 , Daniel HOLSTEIN 1 , Kristine STUMP 1 , Marilyn BRANDT 1 , Wade COOPER 1 1 NCORE/Marine Biology and Fisheries, RSMAS, University of Miami, Miami, FL, 2 Smithsonian Institution NHB, Washington, DC The highly heterogeneous nature of coral reefs in space and time complicates the process of designing reasonably objective, representative monitoring programs focused on fish and macrobenthos. In one-time sampling designs, one is sampling a defined space, in which the characteristics of interest of the space are the abundances of fish and macrobenthos, and often the spatial correlation relationships among these. The sample design may thus be focused on accounting for the variance in one or more combinations of these parameters over space, sometimes based on preliminary sampling. In monitoring, the characteristics of space of primary concern are the changes over time anticipated in these abundances. Because change over time may correlate weakly or unpredictably with abundance, the use of preliminary onetime sampling as a design tool may be of limited value. For both sampling and monitoring designs, factors such as high variability in sand and hard substrate patch sizes and dispersion, and ‘intrusion’ into hard substrate of sandy grooves in spur-and-groove systems, create problems in determining the sampling regime to be represented. These, in addition to extremes in slope and holes of various sizes in the substrate, often cause the introduction of considerable subjectivity into the design – often via decisions made in the field. We use a combination of multiple prior surveys, satellite data analysis and computer simulation, analyzed with respect to variance in time and space and practical field time limitations, to determine the pros and cons of a variety of approaches to the design of a monitoring program for a fringing reef of approximately 20 sq km in eastern Dominican Republic. 134

Oral Mini-Symposium 16: Ecosystem Assessment and Monitoring of Coral Reefs - New Technologies and Approaches<br />

16-18<br />

Estimating Three-Dimensional Coral Colony Surface Area from Simple Field<br />

Measurements<br />

Lee COURTNEY 1 , William FISHER* 1 , Sandy RAIMONDO 1 , Leah OLIVER 1 , William<br />

DAVIS 1<br />

1 National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, Gulf Ecology<br />

Division, US Environmental Protection Agency, Gulf Breeze, FL<br />

Topographic surface area (SA) of coral colonies is a critical descriptor for biological and<br />

physical attributes of reef-building (scleractinian) corals. SA is directly related to coral<br />

sustainability (e.g., living tissue) and anthropocentric values (e.g., fish habitat, shoreline<br />

protection). Most existing methods to estimate colony SA are destructive and limited to<br />

laboratory settings. However, a recently-described photographic method was tested and<br />

found applicable to field colonies. A highly accurate 3-dimensional digital reconstruction<br />

is generated using specialized computer software and multiple images of a coral colony.<br />

SA determined from the reconstructed colony is within 2-5% of SA determined by laserscanning.<br />

The method was used to evaluate three approaches, or models, for calculating<br />

SA of coral colonies from simple morphological measurements made in the field. The<br />

models included a volumetric size-class (SA = 5 sides of a cube), a hemispheric surrogate<br />

(SA = 2πr2, where r is determined from height, diameter and width), and a suite of loglinear<br />

formulae generated from stepwise multiple regression of reconstructed colony SA<br />

against colony height, diameter and width. When SA determined using field collected<br />

data were compared to SA of reconstructed images, the log-linear model was most<br />

accurate (12% difference from reconstruction values), followed by the hemispheric<br />

surrogate (17% difference) and size-classes (40% difference). While only four species<br />

were included in these analyses (Montastraea faveolata, M. cavernosa, Diploria strigosa<br />

and D. clivosa), SA of specimens from seven additional species were credibly estimated<br />

(

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