Local replenishment of coral reef fish populations in a marine reserve. Science Regional decline of coral cover in the Indo-Pacific: timing, extent, and subregional comparisons. Reef at Risk Revisited. The economics of worldwide coral reef degradation. Fabricius KE. Effects of terrestrial runoff on the ecology of corals and coral reefs: review and synthesis. Marine Pollution Bulletin 50 2 Coral reefs under rapid climate change and ocean acidification.
The coasts of our world: ecological, economic and social importance. In addition to the monitoring work conducted by satellites and buoys, NOAA conducts research, assessment, and restoration projects of coral reefs in marine reserves and among deep-sea coral banks. NOAA is also working to remove tons of marine debris from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and restore damaged reefs. Active and targeted restoration by creating new ways to outplants many corals at once and other interventions will reduce the decline of coral populations and support coral reef ecosystems in changing environmental conditions.
Monitoring, research, and restoration all are essential to safeguard coral reefs. However, to ultimately protect coral reefs, legal mechanisms may be necessary.
One legal mechanism involves the establishment of marine protected areas MPAs. Recent products of these working groups that EPA helped to develop include:. The EPA Resource Guide for Managers of Coastal Watersheds with Coral Reefs provides a general overview of the most relevant EPA programs and tools that can help watershed managers address land-based sources of pollution that impact coral reefs. The guide is intended primarily for watershed managers that participate in the USCRTF, but may serve as a useful resource for others.
The Corals and Climate Adaptation Design Tool can be used by coral reef managers to incorporate climate-smart design into their programs and projects at any stage of planning and implementation.
This Handbook on Coral Reef Impacts provides a review of the federal authorities, existing policies, and federal, state, and territory roles and responsibilities; a compendium of current best practices—science-based methodologies for quantifying ecosystem functions or services; and a general overview of basic protocols available for use when assessing impacts to coral reef ecosystems and mitigating or restoring for unavoidable impacts to coral reef ecosystems, including the use of appropriate compensatory action to replace the lost functions and services.
The recommended ecological indicators and measurements help determine the efficacy and evaluate the success of management efforts to reduce land-based sources of pollution on coral reef ecosystems. A user-friendly programmatic checklist PDF 6 pp, K, About PDF developed to help managers and watershed coordinators identify programmatic needs for the successful implementation of a ridge to reef watershed management plan.
A lack of analytical power: faster and more complex analyses are necessary to handle growing volumes of data generated by new technologies; additional analyses are then needed in order to translate that data to more sophisticated and effective decision-making;.
Appropriate governance: applying science- and technology-based management in culturally appropriate and effective ways. To meet these challenges, practitioners are experimenting with a proliferation of both hardware and software innovations, many of which have been topics at key academic and conservation conferences. For example, at the Emerging Technology for Coral Reef Science and Conservation session at the most recent International Coral Reef Symposium , researchers gave talks about applying a diversity of new technologies, such as drones, underwater remotely operated vehicles ROVs , autonomous underwater vehicles AUVs , and satellites to gather data on coral reefs.
Each of these technologies generate information about reef ecology and health across a diverse range of depths, conditions, and spatial and temporal scales. For example, drones, ROVs, and AUVs can provide very high spatial resolution imagery of localized areas of reef, while satellites can provide a coarser-scale view of far larger areas of reef.
Similarly, 3D maps of reefs are allowing new methods of assessing the functional importance of corals Fontoura et al. Collectively, these tools can helps scientists and managers quantify aspects of reef ecosystem health across a wide range of spatial resolutions, depths, and locations.
Despite these advantages, each of these tools has limitations, many of which involve trade-offs between spatial and temporal resolution and geographic coverage. Likewise, advances in sensors and tracking systems are providing more accurate information about the movement of species and dynamic environmental conditions—in some cases, even in real- or near-real-time Maxwell et al.
The application of such technology is wide: citizen-scientist surfers are piloting Smartfins to share data on ocean properties via sensors in their surfboard fins; smaller vessel monitoring systems VMS units by Pelagic Data Systems are providing new ways to track fishing vessels and, potentially, fishing gear; and new types of acoustic tags and receivers continue to lend insight into fish behavior, habitat use, and effectiveness of different kinds of fisheries management. Another intersection between technology and marine science is in automation of image capture and processing, as well as development of platforms and algorithms to better analyze the enormous data sets generated by these new technologies.
Figure 1. Matrix of illustrative coral reef science and conservation technology solutions that match innovative strategies to known barriers. All photographs provided by named organizations, with the exceptions of 5 Emily Darling; 6 James Morgan; 7 www. These developments have helped to advance knowledge of oceans and human impacts to marine ecosystems.
However, in the context of globally threatened coral reefs, we argue that the full potential of technology to positively advance conservation has not yet been tapped. To better understand how we can maximize the potential of emerging technologies to benefit coral reef science and conservation, we use qualitative analysis of a suite of existing initiatives that utilize technology to advance science or conservation of coral reefs.
Such reoccuring or common problems often point to underlying, systemic barriers that, if resolved, can help open opportunities across a sector.
Secondly, we examined aspects of programs and projects that facilitated progress within a project and looked for similarities in these success factors across multiple initiatives. Identifying patterns in successful approaches to problem solving can point to strategies for scaling success more widely. Figure 1 provides an overview of the three key barriers, as well as three potential strategies for success, that we identified, and notes examples of specific projects or initiatives that are tackling a given barrier with a specific strategy.
While not comprehensive, these examples highlight several key barriers preventing more effective use of technology in coral reef science and conservation and provide insight into how we may begin to scale solutions to overcome these core sticking points in the system.
Data Without Insight : Several initiatives had the similar challenge of turning newly generated data into insights that could inform understanding or management of coral reefs. These problems include generation of too much data to process in a timely or accurate manner; the challenge of developing algorithms that work at both small and large scales; and a lack of cross-disciplinary training of individuals in both science and technology to accelerate and improve interpretation of data.
The result is a condition where more and more data are generated, but without capacity to realize the full potential impact of these data on the management or understanding of the ecosystem. Efforts and Data are Fragmented : A lack of coordination permeates the system. The majority of existing projects are one-off and isolated from one another, and larger platforms for shared learning remain scarce, especially given the rapid pace of technology development and usage.
In addition, scientists and conservation practitioners have different and potentially competing priorities for what they need from technology, which stifles progress—particularly as it prevents a coordinated funding strategy to support technology development and data collection across the field. Limited Accessibility to Technology : There are several different, but related, factors that prevent more widespread access to novel tools for coral reef science and conservation.
First, although costs have largely come down, innovations remain expensive, especially for developing world practitioners and scientists, preventing many from using existing tools. Second, the rapidly evolving field makes communication about new tools or processes difficult and means many users remain unaware of potentially valuable and useful resources—this limits progress and can lead to wasted resources as individuals work to design a solution that already exists.
Even once a tool is widely known, the technological expertise to apply it is often lacking. Finally, infrastructure limitations continue to hamstring use of tools and platforms where reliable electricity, high-speed internet connections, or other key elements to effective deployment of a technological solution may be missing. Build technology expertise: Several technology-based conservation efforts have found success by providing focused training, often for free, to field practitioners who can then apply new technologies directly to the problem at hand Figures 1.
Rather than relying on technology specialists, these programs often work to make their technology accessible to core users through online and in-person courses, online tutorials and other materials, and follow up help when necessary. A core tenet is reduction of redundancy, allowing for scientists and managers to capitalize on data and methods generated by one another.
Doing so allows them to direct limited resources toward novel analyses or technology design, rather than re-generating data or re-developing methods that have already been created.
This principle for success often manifests as open platforms for data sharing, open-source software and hardware, and other models that seek to reduce costs for technology innovation and access Figures 1.
Develop new models for innovation: New approaches to adapting or harnessing the tech development pipeline, spanning the conception to implementation phases, is key to effectively designing and applying technologies to meet marine science and conservation needs.
Currently, several initiatives are experimenting effectively in this space, including as a means to: a drive marine science or conservation-focused tech development Figure 1. Each is an example of how novel business models or design platforms can accelerate effective application of new technologies for advancing coral reef science and conservation. Importantly, collaboration within this process between tech developers and the scientific and management communities is key e.
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