On-Site Monitoring Tools for Coral Bleaching Events
Scientists and researchers around the world are actively responding to coral bleaching events through various initiatives and strategies aimed at understanding, mitigating, and adapting to the impacts of bleaching. Some of the key ways in which organizations are monitoring or tracking coral bleaching events using various on-site methods include:
Global
- NOAA Coral Reef Watch (CRW) provide resource managers, scientists, in-water monitoring networks, and the public all over the world report coral bleaching data using various methods. Please share your bleaching data directly with NOAA CRW.
- Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) is a global operational network of the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) made up of a network of scientists, managers, and organizations that monitor the status and trends of coral reef ecosystem 10 regional nodes. Check out ICRI’s new Coral Bleaching Hub!
- Wildlife Conservation Society and database portal Marine Ecological Research Management Aid (MERMAID) provide an open source application to manage coral reef data. Data can be uploaded using the Rapid bleaching protocol by visually assessing bleaching in quadrats at various locations in the world such as Western Caribbean, Melanesia, and the Southeast Asian Archipelago.
- Reef Check trains citizen scientists to track reef health and bleaching using belt transects. Some of its active networks include the Coral Bleaching Network in Indonesia and ReefCheck Malaysia.
- ReefCloud uses photos and artificial intelligence to track reef health in various locations in the world such as Australia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Fiji, and Indonesia among other locations.
- Coral Watch is a citizen science program that uses color cards. Check out the Coral Watch Interactive Data Map where you can visualize past data and submit new data.
- The National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) monitors coral health using belt transects in U.S. States and Territories (American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Florida, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands).
- PADI Aware Foundation Adopt the Blue Network has included coral bleaching observations as one of the conservation issues to be recorded by divers across the world.
- The University of Queensland, Remote Sensing Research Center-School of the Environment and the Allen Coral Atlas partnership implemented the georeferenced photo quadrats to groundtruth habitat mapping techniques and most recently to track coral bleaching. All data can be visualized in Reef Cloud Dashboards. For more information, check out this article and the Marine Remote Sensing Toolkit.
Atlantic
- Atlantic Gulf and Rapid Reef Assessment (AGRRA) is a standardized coral reef monitoring protocol in the Wider Caribbean. It includes the bleach watch portal which gathers information from multiple methods such as Bardrop, belt, and point transects.
Florida
- The Florida Keys Mote Marine Laboratory BleachWatch program targets citizen scientists to report bleaching (presence/absence) data and disease in Florida.
- The Florida Reef Resilience Program Disturbance Response Monitoring (DRM) is a collaborative effort among local, state, and federal environmental managers, scientists, conservation organizations, and reef users to collect bleaching data.
- The Florida Dept. Environmental Protection CRCP BleachWatch, Southeast Florida Action Network (SEAFAN) BleachWatch involves citizen scientists to report bleaching (presence/absence) and disease in Florida.
Mesoamerican Region
- Healthy Reefs Initiative and 70+ partner surveyors use the ECOMAR Belize Coral Watch Program (Bardrop) and input results into the AGRRA online platform.
Brazil
- The Centro de Síntese em Mudanças Ambientais e Climáticas (SIMACLIM) integrates research from the Brazilian Research Network on Global Climate Change (including coral bleaching) with experiences developed by other national and international research networks.
Pacific
Hawaiian Islands
- Hawaiʻi Coral Bleaching Collaborative (HCBC), established in 2015, is a multi-institutional group of scientists from academic institutions, non-governmental organizations, and governmental agencies across the state of Hawaiʻi. HCBC documents the extent and severity of episodic bleaching events in Hawaii, laying the groundwork for tracking coral response and recovery through time. Data collected by HCBC is used to answer questions about patterns and drivers of bleaching in order to inform scientific knowledge and sound management decisions in the state.
- Koa A Corps involves a color card process which citizen scientists can use to report bleaching in the Hawaiian Islands.
- Eyes on the Reef Hawai’i involves citizen scientists, which implement an early warning system for coral bleaching, coral disease, Crown-of-Thorns Sea Stars (COTS), and marine invasive species in Hawai‘i.
South Pacific
- The Site d’Observation-SO CORAIL (National Observation Service), Center for Insular Research and Environmental Observatory (CRIOBE) Long-Term Monitoring Program for the Coral Reefs of the South Pacific implements photoquadrat and transect surveys alongside the Polynesia Mana Network which includes 5 insular states of the South Pacific and 10 islands of French Polynesia. This initiative is led by Institut national des Sciences de l’Univers– Centre national de la recherche scientifique and many more organizations.
New Caledonia
- Pala Dalik is a citizen science program that implements and transects to collect (presence/absence) coral bleaching data alonside Réseau d’Observation des Récifs Coralliens/ Participatory Coral Reef Monitoring Network.
Australia–Great Barrier Reef
- Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) monitors the Great Barrier Reef through two major programs – the Long-Term Monitoring Program (LTMP)-which uses manta tows and fixed photo transects. Permanent photo transects are also used in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Monitoring Program for inshore coral reefs (MMP).
- The Bleaching Impact Framework was developed by The Great Barrier Reef Authority (GBRMPA), AIMS, and James Cook University, which combines various methods into four components that contribute to coral bleaching–exposure, colony response, spatial extent, and prevalence–and provides five levels of coral reef impacts in the GBR. The Reef Authority also provides Reef Health Updates based on forecasts, water temperature heat mapping, in-water surveys, citizen science and aerial surveys.
Melanesia
- The Coral Sea Foundation works with women in Papua New Guinea and Melanesia to monitor coral reefs using photo transects and Reef Cloud.
East Asia
Japan
- The Japan Wildlife Research Center, Ministry of Government of Japan monitors annually more than 400 spots in 20 coral reef sites as part of the “monitoring site 1000”, optional parameters include the ratio of bleaching.
Philippines
- Philippines Coral Bleaching Watch is a citizen science program which serves as an early warning system for documenting coral bleaching data (presence/absence) and Crown-of-Thorns Sea Stars (COTS) outbreaks in the Philippines.
Indonesia
- Coral Bleaching Network in Indonesia is comprised of a network of organizations and citizen scientists trained using Reef Check to track reef health and bleaching using belt transects.
Malaysia
- ReefCheck Malaysia involves a network of organizations and citizen scientists trained to track reef health and bleaching using belt transects.
Indian Ocean
- CORDIO East Africa leads the Indian Ocean Coral Bleaching network, which provides reports on the status of alerts, a form to report bleaching (via presence/absence, transects) and a dashboard to visualize observations.
- Maldives Marine Research Institute, Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture, lead the Coral Database, which includes monitoring via photo quadrats (random or, transects) and reporting of coral health and bleaching severity in the Maldives.
Red Sea
- The Regional Organization for the Conservation of the Environment of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden (PERSGA) uses the Standard Survey Methods for Key Habitats and Key Species in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and monitors coral health including coral bleaching in Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
- Transnational Red Sea Center is a scientific research center created in 2019 at the Ecole Polytechnique fédérale in Lausanne (EPFL) with the official support of the Swiss Foreign Ministry. An independent and not-for-profit organization has launched an expedition to monitor the health of coral reefs in the Gulf of Aqaba.
- The Israel National Monitoring Program at the Gulf of Eilat monitors coral reefs, and other oceanographic and ecological variables in the gulf of Eliat-Aqaba. The data is publicly available.
The best method will depend on what you can measure, how you measure it, the longevity of the program, and the financial/human resources available!
If you monitor coral bleaching and would like to be included in this list please contact us: arivera-sosa@coral.org
Additional Resources
- Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) Resources
- Methods for Ecological Monitoring of Coral Reefs by Jos Hill and Clive Wilkinson (ReefBase, Reef Check, GCRMN)
- Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS)- Survey Manual for Tropical Marine Resources
- Global Protocol for Assessment and Monitoring of Coral Bleaching by Oliver et al 2004
- A Reef Manager’s Guide to Coral Bleaching, by Paul Marshall and Heidi Schuttenberg, 2006
New! Education on Coral Bleaching
- By @NOAASatellites Youtube channel Getting Started: Investigating Coral bleaching Module
- Learning materials for ages 5-12+ National Geographic MapMaker: Coral Bleaching
Coral Identification Support
- Corals of the World
- CORDIO East Africa, Western Indian Ocean
- NOAA Fisheries Pacific Islands Regional Office’s, Coral Species Identification Training Program