TY - JOUR
T1 - Site Selection for Coral Reef Restoration Using Airborne Imaging Spectroscopy
AU - Schill, Steven R.
AU - Asner, Gregory P.
AU - McNulty, Valerie Pietsch
AU - Pollock, F. Joseph
AU - Croquer, Aldo
AU - Vaughn, Nicholas R.
AU - Escovar-Fadul, Ximena
AU - Raber, George
AU - Shaver, Elizabeth
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to acknowledge the support of Carlos Garcia, Francisco Núñez, Giselle Hall, Jessica Wiseman, Lisa Price, Luis Solorzano, Marci Eggers, Montserrat Acosta-Morel, Robyn McGuinness, Robert Brumbaugh, and Zach Horton. We would also like to acknowledge local partners leading the Coral Mania including the Dominican Republic Coral Restoration Consortium (DR – CRC), Jake Kheel and Susanne Leib from Grupo Puntacana Foundation, Rita Sellares and Maria Villalpando from FUNDEMAR, Someira Zambrano from Red Arrecifal Dominicana, Emile Mariotti from Sea Pro Divers, and Victor Galvan.
Funding Information:
This research was funded by Daniel C. Chung, The Kowalski Family Foundation, The Tiffany & Co. Foundation (Grant No. 12171), The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation (Grant No. 12809), The Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands, The J.A. Woollam Foundation, and The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (Grant No. 96061-0). The Global Airborne Observatory is made possible by support provided by private foundations, visionary individuals, and Arizona State University.
Funding Information:
We would like to acknowledge the support of Carlos Garcia, Francisco N??ez, Giselle Hall, Jessica Wiseman, Lisa Price, Luis Solorzano, Marci Eggers, Montserrat Acosta-Morel, Robyn McGuinness, Robert Brumbaugh, and Zach Horton. We would also like to acknowledge local partners leading the Coral Mania including the Dominican Republic Coral Restoration Consortium (DR ? CRC), Jake Kheel and Susanne Leib from Grupo Puntacana Foundation, Rita Sellares and Maria Villalpando from FUNDEMAR, Someira Zambrano from Red Arrecifal Dominicana, Emile Mariotti from Sea Pro Divers, and Victor Galvan. Funding. This research was funded by Daniel C. Chung, The Kowalski Family Foundation, The Tiffany & Co. Foundation (Grant No. 12171), The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation (Grant No. 12809), The Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands, The J.A. Woollam Foundation, and The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (Grant No. 96061-0). The Global Airborne Observatory is made possible by support provided by private foundations, visionary individuals, and Arizona State University.
Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright © 2021 Schill, Asner, McNulty, Pollock, Croquer, Vaughn, Escovar-Fadul, Raber and Shaver.
PY - 2021/7/29
Y1 - 2021/7/29
N2 - Over the past decade, coral restoration efforts have increased as reefs continue to decline at unprecedented rates. Identifying suitable coral outplanting locations to maximize coral survival continues to be one of the biggest challenges for restoration practitioners. Here, we demonstrate methods of using derivatives from imaging spectroscopy from the Global Airborne Observatory (GAO) to identify suitable coral outplant sites and report on the survival rates of restored coral at those sites. Outplant sites for a community-based, citizen science outplant event in Bávaro, Dominican Republic, were identified using expert-defined criteria applied to a suitability model from data layers derived from airborne imagery. Photo quadrat analysis of the benthic community confirmed the accuracy of airborne remote sensing maps with live coral cover averaging 3.5–4% and mean algal cover (macro algae and turf) ranging from 28 to 32%. Coral outplant sites were selected at 3–7 m depth with maximized levels of habitat complexity (i.e., rugosity) and live coral cover and minimized levels of macroalgal cover, as predicted by the imaging spectrometer data. In November 2019, 1,722 Acropora cervicornis fragments (80–180 mm in length) were outplanted to these sites. Surveys conducted in January 2020 in four of these sites confirmed that 92% of outplants survived after 3 months. By October 2020 (11 months after outplanting), survivorship remained above 76%. These results demonstrate higher than average success rates for coral outplant survival for this species. An online tool was developed to enable replication and facilitate future selection of coral restoration sites. Our objective is to present a case study that uses GAO-derived map products within a suitability model framework to provide a quantitative and replicable method for selecting coral restoration sites with the goal of increasing outplant survival over time.
AB - Over the past decade, coral restoration efforts have increased as reefs continue to decline at unprecedented rates. Identifying suitable coral outplanting locations to maximize coral survival continues to be one of the biggest challenges for restoration practitioners. Here, we demonstrate methods of using derivatives from imaging spectroscopy from the Global Airborne Observatory (GAO) to identify suitable coral outplant sites and report on the survival rates of restored coral at those sites. Outplant sites for a community-based, citizen science outplant event in Bávaro, Dominican Republic, were identified using expert-defined criteria applied to a suitability model from data layers derived from airborne imagery. Photo quadrat analysis of the benthic community confirmed the accuracy of airborne remote sensing maps with live coral cover averaging 3.5–4% and mean algal cover (macro algae and turf) ranging from 28 to 32%. Coral outplant sites were selected at 3–7 m depth with maximized levels of habitat complexity (i.e., rugosity) and live coral cover and minimized levels of macroalgal cover, as predicted by the imaging spectrometer data. In November 2019, 1,722 Acropora cervicornis fragments (80–180 mm in length) were outplanted to these sites. Surveys conducted in January 2020 in four of these sites confirmed that 92% of outplants survived after 3 months. By October 2020 (11 months after outplanting), survivorship remained above 76%. These results demonstrate higher than average success rates for coral outplant survival for this species. An online tool was developed to enable replication and facilitate future selection of coral restoration sites. Our objective is to present a case study that uses GAO-derived map products within a suitability model framework to provide a quantitative and replicable method for selecting coral restoration sites with the goal of increasing outplant survival over time.
KW - Caribbean
KW - coral outplanting
KW - coral survival
KW - imaging spectroscopy
KW - reef restoration
KW - remote sensing
KW - suitability modeling
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85112402252&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85112402252&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fmars.2021.698004
DO - 10.3389/fmars.2021.698004
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85112402252
SN - 2296-7745
VL - 8
JO - Frontiers in Marine Science
JF - Frontiers in Marine Science
M1 - 698004
ER -