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Assessing coral health and disease from digital photographs and in situ surveys

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Abstract

Methods for monitoring the status of marine communities are increasingly adopting the use of images captured in the field. However, it is not always clear how data collected from photographic images relate to historic data collected using traditional underwater visual census methods. Here, we compare coral health and disease data collected in situ by scuba divers with photographic images collected simultaneously at 12 coral reef sites. Five globally relevant coral diseases were detected on 194 colonies from in situ surveys and 79 colonies from photos, whilst 698 colonies from in situ surveys and 535 colonies from photos exhibited signs of compromised health other than disease. Comparisons of in situ surveys with photographic analyses indicated that the number of disease cases occurring in the examined coral populations (prevalence) was six times higher (4.5 vs. 0.8% of colonies), whilst compromised health was three times higher (14 vs. 4% of colonies) from in situ surveys. Skeletal eroding band disease, sponge overgrowth and presence of Waminoa flatworms were not detected in photographs, though they were identified in situ. Estimates of black band disease and abnormally pigmented coral tissues were similar between the two methods. Estimates of the bleached and healthy colonies were also similar between methods and photographic analyses were a strong predictor of bleached (r 2 = 0.8) and healthy (r 2 = 0.5) colony prevalence from in situ surveys. Moreover, when data on disease and compromised health states resulting in white or pale coral colony appearance were pooled, the prevalence of ‘white’ colonies from in situ (14%) and photographic analyses (11%) were statistically similar. Our results indicate that information on coral disease and health collected by in situ surveys and photographic analyses are not directly comparable, with in situ surveys generally providing higher estimates of prevalence and greater ability to identify some diseases and compromised states. Careful sampling of photographs can however identify signs of coral stress, including some coral diseases, which may be used to trigger early-warning management interventions.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Allan Shields and Ben Gryta of the Fisheries Vessel PV Edwards and Rachael Middlebrook and Kevin Crane of the Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) and the Office of the Environmental Protection Authority for their assistance in the field. This project was funded as part of the Dredging Audit and Surveillance Program by the Gorgon Joint Venture as part of the environmental offsets. The Gorgon project is a joint venture of the Australian subsidiaries of Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Shell, Osaka Gas, Tokyo Gas and Chubu Electric Power.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Marine and Environmental Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, 4811, Australia

    C. A. Page, F. J. Pollock & J. B. Lamb

  2. Marine Science Program, Department of Parks and Wildlife, Kensington, Western Australia, 6151, Australia

    S. N. Field, G. Shedrawi & S. K. Wilson

  3. School of Plant Biology, Oceans Institute, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, 6009, Australia

    S. N. Field & S. K. Wilson

  4. Eberly College of Science, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    F. J. Pollock

  5. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14583, USA

    J. B. Lamb

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  1. C. A. Page
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  3. F. J. Pollock
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  6. S. K. Wilson
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Correspondence to S. K. Wilson.

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Page, C.A., Field, S.N., Pollock, F.J. et al. Assessing coral health and disease from digital photographs and in situ surveys. Environ Monit Assess 189, 18 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-016-5743-z

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