John is from the UK, and grew up on the south Wales coast before moving to London to study. Having worked on reefs for various commercial and research roles, he is now doing a PhD on coral reef restoration.

Quantitative monitoring and assessment of coral reef restoration

2023 to 2027

Project Description

The project aims to monitor and assess several reef restoration efforts/trials to 1) provide feedback to restoration practitioners and 2) develop methodologies and photogrammetry workflows that can be applied in wider reef restoration monitoring

Project Importance

Detailed monitoring is vital to effective habitat restoration. Efficient and scalable monitoring methods are now urgently needed to support the recent surge in reef restoration.

Project Methods

The project utilises reef photogrammetry methods to create detailed 3D reconstructions of reef sites from which coral communities can be quantitively assessed.

Project Results

The project hopes to: 1) describe early natural reef recovery dynamics in the Chagos Archipelago, 2) develop and report a workflow for tracking and monitoring Coral Outplant Devices, and 3) assess the extent to which one of largest reef restoration projects in the world has restored natural coral communities

Keywords

Artificial reef,
Benthic,
Biostatistics,
Climate change,
Communication / Education,
Coral reefs,
Corals,
Ecology,
Economic development,
Field based,
Management tools,
Manipulative experiments,
Mapping,
Marine planning,
Monitoring,
Natural disturbance,
Ocean acidification,
Ocean warming,
Quantitative marine science,
Temporal change