Regional Reef Fish Survey Design and Scaling Using High-Resolution Mapping and Analysis
Using high-resolution geospatial maps obtained from airborne surveys, researchers set out to test a method across complex reefs in South Kona, Hawaiʿi that could:
- Increase field survey efficiency,
- Reduce field sampling costs, and
- Ensure field sampling is geostatistically robust for upscaling to regional estimates of reef fish composition
This research has the potential to help managers make effective conservation and management decisions around coral reef communities by laying the groundwork for long-term monitoring datasets that provide information about trends in habitat and ecosystem health over time. Although this study took place in South Kona, it is applicable to other areas with coral reef habitat. The team is currently working with the State of Hawaiʿi to apply the method across coral reefs on the Big Island. This technique could be expanded upon in the future to include changes to habitat composition overtime providing more accurate and real-time results to managers.
Read the full paper.
Reference
Asner, G.P., Vaughn, N., Grady, B.W., Foo, S.A., Anand, H., Carlson, R.R., Shafron, E., Teague, C., Martin, R.E. (2021) Regional Reef Fish Survey Design and Scaling Using High-Resolution Mapping and Analysis. Frontiers in Marine Science. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.683184
