NOAA Coral Reef Watch
Collaborations and Partnerships
Collaborations and Partnerships
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In 2011, the Australian Research Council (ARC) awarded a five-year Industry Linkage Grant to a consortium led by the
University
of Queensland (UQ) and
NOAA Coral Reef Watch (CRW)
for the project, "Next generation satellite tools for understanding change in coral reef ecosystems due to multiple
global and local stressors". The project, which again partnered NOAA CRW and UQ with the
Australian Institute of Marine Science and the
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, was designed to enhance
our understanding of the combined stresses of temperature and light on corals to cause bleaching, and the impact of other stressors, such as
nutrients and ocean acidification. It included the development of an enhanced version (covering the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific) of NOAA CRW's experimental
Light Stress Damage satellite product.
This product combines light data from geostationary satellites with a sea surface temperature (SST) product
derived from a blending of Polar and Geostationary satellite data to track coral photo-efficiency.
The Light Stress Damage
satellite product can be used as an index of coral health, indicating when corals are stressed, when they are bleaching, and,
most importantly, when they have recovered from bleaching. The product also is designed to predict mortality following
a mass coral bleaching event. Algorithms underpinning the
Light Stress Damage product are based on extensive experiments
performed in the Western Caribbean and on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. http://www.arc.gov.au/
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Coral Reef Watch is part of the CRTR
Remote Sensing Working Group. The CRTR Program is a partnership between the
Global Environment Facility, the
World Bank, the
University of Queensland,
NOAA,
and approximately 40 other research institutes and third party interests around the world.
This program fills key gaps in our
understanding of coral reefs, and will put new knowledge and
technology into the hands of decision-makers and managers where it can
make a difference. http://www.gefcoral.org/
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ReefGIS, the online GIS system from
ReefBase,
includes monthly data sets derived from Coral Reef Watch operational products.
Users can overlay these data with coral reef locations, bleaching reports, disease reports,
etc. The interface allows users to zoom in, switch data layers on and off,
and save the map for later use.
Coral Reef Watch also partnered with ReefBase to develop a Reporting System for Coral Bleaching, Disease, Mortality, and other Community Composition Changes and Issues on a Coral Reef . This system
allows coral reef scientists, managers, divers, and other enthusiasts to report observations of changes on a coral reef, such as coral
bleaching or disease, that can affect community composition and/or coral health. The system is intended to assist in a wide variety of
management and research activities, which ask many different questions about coral reef ecosystem health and sustainability. It also serves
as a long-term record of changes to coral reef ecosystems around the world.
http://www.reefbase.org/
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The Project AWARE Foundation partners with dive professionals and resource
managers to involve volunteer divers and snorkelers in monitoring coral
bleaching and assessing coral health. Project AWARE's CoralWatch
operators are encouraged to use CRW satellite tools to boost local
conservation efforts. NOAA's bleaching alerts help dive operators and
volunteers identify when and where to intensify their monitoring efforts
as corals are stressed before bleaching is visible. http://www.projectaware.org/english/take_action/coral_reef_monitoring.aspx
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ReefTemp produces high-resolution now-casts of heat stress and bleaching risk
on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. These
products compare daily 2-km sea surface
temperature (SST) data from NOAA satellites to a long-term
climatology. Products include SST, SST Anomaly, Degree Heating Days, and Heating Rate. ReefTemp is a collaborative project
between NOAA Coral Reef Watch, the
Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
(CSIRO) Marine and Atmospheric Research Division, the
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA), and the
Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM). Coral Reef Watch is also participating in a new, follow-on effort led by the Australian BoM and GBRMPA called ReefTemp Next Generation (RTNG) .
Thermal stress products are being derived for the Great Barrier Reef region using an operational multi-platform SST composite at 2-km resolution, produced
by the BoM as part of the Australian Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS). RTNG augments established thermal stress products from ReefTemp with
additional metrics and implements new climatologies and management thresholds related to coral bleaching likelihood.http://www.cmar.csiro.au/remotesensing/reeftemp/web/ReefTemp_application.htm
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This page highlights some of Coral Reef Watch's key collaborations. Working
with partners worldwide helps us build a global network of active data users,
helping us learn more about coral bleaching and impacts to coral health from climate change.
New and ongoing research collaborations are investigating the next generation of products that monitor coral reef health
using remote sensing technology.
