11th ICRS Abstract book - Nova Southeastern University

Oral Mini-Symposium 16: Ecosystem Assessment and Monitoring of Coral Reefs - New Technologies and Approaches
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Divers For The Environment: Volunteers And Scientists in Marine Biodiversity
Monitoring
Stefano GOFFREDO 1 , Patrizia NERI 1 , Antonio ORLANDI 1 , Francesco PENSA* 1 ,
Maria SCOLA GAGLIARDI 1 , Angela VELARDI 1 , Corrado PICCINETTI 2 , Francesco
ZACCANTI 1
1 Department of Evolutionary and Experimental Biology, University of Bologna, Bologna,
Italy, 2 Laboratory of Fisheries and Marine Biology at Fano, University of Bologna, Fano
(PU), Italy
Global monitoring of the biodiversity status is recognized as a priority necessity by the
international scientific community. Research institutes often lack funds and necessary
manpower to perform large scale monitoring. For land environments it has been shown
that citizens can be involved in research, by contributing significantly to the collection of
data. Underwater research requires special operational skills and SCUBA certification,
and it may be difficult to involve large numbers of volunteers. We show that, in a short
time, thousands of recreational divers can be recruited for monitoring the marine
biodiversity status. On a specially formulated questionnaire, volunteers reported the
presence of 61 marine taxa encountered during recreational dives. During the 4-year
study, 3825 divers have completed 18,757 questionnaires, corresponding to 13,539 diving
hours. The volunteer sightings-based index showed that in the monitored area the
environmental quality did not change significantly on the time scale, but it had a
significant correlation with latitude, suggesting improvement in the southernmost areas.
This condition could be related to the main presence of stressors in the northern areas,
and has been corroborated by professional investigations. Our experience shows that
recreational divers can collect a considerable amount of data, over a vast geographical
area, thus decreasing the costs for research institutes. The greatest drawback with this
collaboration is the difficulty to obtain sampling distributed uniformly in space. Projects
that invite citizens to get involved in ecological research provide members of the
community of every age valuable opportunities to improve their science literacy and
environmental awareness. This research, patronaged by the Italian Ministry of the
Environment, was supported by the ASTOI-Association of Italian Tour Operators, the
Association of Diving agencies operating in Italy (IDEA, PADI, PSS, SNSI, SSI) and the
popular scientific magazine Quark.
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Auvs Explore Reef Sustainability
Noelle RELLES* 1 , Mark PATTERSON 1
1 Biological Sciences, VIMS, Gloucester Point, VA
The reefs surrounding the island of Bonaire are the most pristine in the Caribbean, with
high percent coral cover (40-60%) and low abundance of macroalgae. The Bonaire
National Marine Park sets an important precedent regarding marine protection policy and
was nominated for United Nations World Heritage in 2004 due to the high number of
endemic marine species. However, surveys of Bonaire’s underwater biota have been
few, particularly of the deeper reef (65-170 m depth). In 1985, Dr. Fleur van Duyl
completed an underwater atlas of Bonaire, mapping the bottom type and benthic
community to a depth of 10-12 m. During a 5 week NOAA signature expedition in 2008,
the reefs were remapped using a combination of 3 Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
(AUV) for survey, and Nitrox and Trimix SCUBA diving. The twilight zone of the reef
was investigated using high frequency side scan sonar, multibeam sonar, video, and water
quality sensors that were fixed to the AUVs. AUV technology was utilized in this project
due to its cost effectiveness, and capability for deeper surveying and greater coverage
over shorter time periods than previous mapping efforts. Divers using Nitrox and Trimix
SCUBA served to groundtruth data collected by AUV missions at several points on the
reef. At select locations, the resulting data were compared to van Duyl's snapshot from
the 1980s. The resulting maps are maintained in ArcGIS, with kmz layers available for
use by coral reef scientists, managers, and the public using Google Earth. The resulting
maps are compared to the previous work by van Duyl (1985) and more recent work by
Bak et al. (2005) and used to assess the success of Bonaire’s experiment in Marine
Protected Areas.
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Shallow And Deep-Water Gorgonian Surveys on Saba Bank, Netherlands Antilles
Peter ETNOYER* 1 , Herman WIRSHING 2 , Juan Armando SANCHEZ 3
1 Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi, TX, 2 Marine Biology and
Fisheries, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, Miami,
FL, 3 Departamento Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad de los Andes, Santa Fe de Bogota D.C,
Colombia
Saba Bank is a large submerged platform (~2200 km2) mostly within scuba diver depth range
(< 50 m), located 4 km southwest of Saba Island in Netherlands Antilles, Caribbean Sea. Ships
traveling to and from oil terminals on nearby St. Eustatius occasionally anchor on the Bank,
damaging benthic megafauna. Concerns about the practice prompted a recent series of
investigations. Gorgonian corals are among the most common and conspicuous benthic
megafauna in local shallow and deep-water (> 50 m) environments, so we sought to
characterize gorgonian habitats and estimate species richness using a combination of remote
sensing, scuba diving transects, and a Seabotix LBV200L remotely operated vehicle (ROV) for
deeper collections. Landsat imagery and multibeam bathymetry were employed to create a
block design with random survey sites. A total of 14 scuba dives and 5 ROV dives were
completed in 10 days. During that time, 47 species were collected down to 130 m depth,
including undescribed species in the genera Pterogorgia and Lytreia. Two different shallowwater
gorgonian habitat types were identified by multidimensional scaling and hierarchical
cluster analyses of species density values: 1) a higher diversity, higher density ‘reef crest’
environment characterized by Eunicea spp., Gorgonia spp., and Pseudopterogorgia spp. and 2)
a lower diversity, lower density ‘reef flat’ environment predominantly composed of
Pseudopterogorgia acerosa, Pterogorgia guadalupensis, and G. mariae. These analyses
support hypotheses of habitat similarity within zones, and a gradient in diversity and abundance
from the reef crest to the reef flats. Some degree of heterogeneity in gorgonian assemblages
occurred along the 40 km southeast rim of Saba Bank. Our discoveries of two undescribed
gorgonian species argue strongly that continued scientific exploration of Saba Bank is
necessary.
16-43
Crustaceans Of Saba Bank, Netherlands Antilles
Morgan KILGOUR* 1 , Thomas SHIRLEY 2
1 Texas A&M University- Corpus Christi, Harte Research Institute, Corpus Christi, TX, 2 Texas
A&M University-Corpus Christi, Harte Research Institute, Corpus Christi, TX
Saba Bank is a large (~2200 km 2 ) submerged atoll approximately 4 km west of Saba Island in
the Netherlands Antilles whose crustacean fauna is poorly known. Concerns about anchor
damage from oil tankers to coral habitats on the Bank prompted a study to characterize its
fauna. We focused on the decapod crustaceans and used three methods to collect samples.
Random collection sites were sampled within habitat types (fore reef, reef flat, back reef slope,
lagoon, patch reef and atoll slope) delineated from Landsat imagery and high-resolution
multibeam bathymetry data. Scuba (14 dives) was used to observe, photograph, and collect
decapod specimens and also to collect sponges, small corals, gorgonians and other biogenic
habitats containing cryptic and saxicolous crustaceans. A Seabotix ROV (Remotely Operated
Vehicle) was used for 5 days to collect gorgonians, sponges and other biogenic debris
containing crustaceans, below diver depths to 130 m. Two crab traps, each fitted with smaller
shrimp traps, were baited with multiple kinds of bait and set for three 24 h periods in 300 to 400
m depths to collect specimens below ROV and scuba depths. Crustaceans collected with scuba
were differentiated by depth, habitat, and reef zone; depth and location were recorded for
specimens collected with the ROV or traps. More than 95 crustaceans were collected, with
many representing range extensions or rare species. Assemblage composition and species
richness were heterogeneous among habitats, and many species had pronounced depth
distributions. Species accrual rates imply that only a portion of the decapod fauna has been
sampled; additional quantitative sampling is warranted to complete an inventory of the decapod
community and more fully describe their assemblage patterns.
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