11th ICRS Abstract book - Nova Southeastern University

Poster Mini-Symposium 16: Ecosystem Assessment and Monitoring of Coral Reefs - New Technologies and Approaches
16.534
The Installation of a Coral Reef Early Warning System (CREWS) Monitoring
Station
Jules CRAYNOCK* 1 , Michael SHOEMAKER 1 , Nancy ASH 1 , Mike JANKULAK 2 ,
James HENDEE 1
1 Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, Miami, FL, 2 Cooperative Institute for Marine and
Atmospheric Sciences, University of Miami, Miami, FL
CREWS monitoring stations offer several advantages over traditional buoy monitoring
stations, including ease of deployment and maintenance, high bandwidth to accommodate
large number of instruments, modular components for maintenance, and dynamic
strength against wind and waves. The process of CREWS station installation is described
in five stages: 1) site survey and permit processing, 2) bottom pin and plate installation,
3) pylon pre-deployment construction finalizing, 4) pylon installation to the ocean floor
and bottom plate, and, 5) electronics installation and testing. Subsequent to the
installation, a special training session is conducted with local station maintainers to
ensure continuance of data transmission of the highest integrity. The use of specialized
instrumentation, as well as total cost and logistical considerations are discussed.
16.535
Coral Point Count With Excel Extensions (Cpce) V3.5: Improvements To Software
For The Analysis Of Coral And Substrate Coverage Using The Random Point
Count Method And Planar Area Calculation
Kevin KOHLER* 1
1 National Coral Reef Institute, Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center,
Dania Beach, FL
Coral Point Count with Excel Extensions (CPCe) is a standalone Windows-based
program which automates the random point count method using underwater imagery to
determine coral and substrate coverage. Additionally, CPCe uses image calibration to
calculate planar areas and lengths of benthic features. CPCe has been made available to
the coral reef community since 2004. Since the time of its release, CPCe has been met
with great enthusiasm from researchers worldwide, and has been continually updated and
improved with additional features suggested by users. These improvements have
enhanced the usability and functionality of the software. The current version of CPCe
(V3.5) contains several significant improvements over prior versions. CPCe allows users
to specify a customized coral code file containing species and habitat listings appropriate
for their region of interest. The program now contains an enhanced code file checker
which allows users to quickly recognize and fix errors in the code file. The area analysis
portion of the program has also been updated with several new features. First, CPCe now
contains an optional mini-zoom function which magnifies the pixels surrounding the
tracing cursor, allowing users to make more accurate traces. Second, V3.5 introduces the
concept of master and subordinate areas which allows the specification of an
encompassing area with the ability to subtract areas of internal regions. Third, the area
data can now be exported into Excel spreadsheets automatically. These improvements
make CPCe V3.5 a very robust tool for calculating coral and substrate coverage in an
efficient manner.
16.536
The Construction Process Of A Coral Reef Early Warning System (Crews) Pylon
Michael SHOEMAKER* 1 , Jules CRAYNOCK 1 , Manuel COLLAZO 2 , James HENDEE 1
1 Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, Miami, FL, 2 Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences,
University of Miami, Miami, FL
Hollow extruded Fiberglas tubes, 12.5 m long and 25 cm in diameter, have been custom
engineered and strengthened to serve as meteorological and oceanographic monitoring stations
that move dynamically with wind and waves, and serve as platforms for robust instrumentation
that monitor and transmit data hourly through a GOES satellite to NOAA's Atlantic
Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami, Florida. These monitoring platforms,
nicknamed Coral Reef Early Warning System (CREWS) stations, undergo a construction
process of approximately 350 man hours, which includes the special fabrication of a "step" for
insertion of the station on a pre-installed stainless steel plate-and-ball, the interior placement of
conduit housing for cable runs between instrument and data acquisition hardware, specialized
component fabrication and re-attachment to the pylon, custom bulkhead and instrument bracket
fabrication, installation of an internal radar reflector, partial fill of buoyancy material, and many
other specialized tasks. The stations are eventually carefully situated within coral reef
ecosystems that meet specific criteria. These stations have been installed at four sites (Lee
Stocking Island, Bahamas; Salt River, St. Croix; La Parguera, Puerto Rico; and Discovery Bay,
Jamaica) and have operated with high reliability with the assistance of local site maintainers and
biological observers. One of the stations has withstood tropical storm force winds (Bahamas),
and one a hurricane (Jamaica). The stations offer special advantage over buoys, but are meant
for shallow deployment (~ 6 m).
16.537
Getting To The Point: Accuracy Assessment Of Point Counting To Monitor Degrading
Reefs
Eric PANTE* 1 , Phillip DUSTAN 2
1 Biology, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA, 2 Biology, College of Charleston,
Charleston, SC
The statistical behavior of cover estimation on coral reefs by pointcounting was assessed using
a simple computer simulation, modeled after actual benthic data from a small Bahamian patch
reef surveyed using 20 m video line transects. The simulations revealed that estimating true
variation in cover within a benthic population appears to require more effort than estimating
true mean cover. The probability of under or overestimating cover and/or cover variance along
a 20 m transect decreases with increasing number of points per frame. The minimum number of
random points necessary to accurately estimate cover and its variation increases with decreasing
cover. Therefore, coral reefs with lower cover and less heterogeneous populations require an
increased number of points. These results, corroborated using video data from the USEPA-
CRMP in the Florida Keys, strongly suggest that careful consideration must be given to
sampling design and data analysis prior to attempting to estimate benthic cover, especially in
the context of monitoring temporally degrading coral reef ecosystems.
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