Coral Bleaching Monitoring

Photo by Jay Clue

Efforts to increase our understanding of coral bleaching events help inform conservation and management strategies. Monitoring includes remote sensing products using satellite data, on-site observations, underwater photography, or coral tissue sampling by scuba divers.

Mission: Iconic Reefs coordinates with BLEACHWATCH and SOUTHEAST FLORIDA ACTION NETWORK (SEAFAN) BLEACHWATCH, early warning systems that tap the citizen science community.

We collaborate with THE FLORIDA REEF RESILIENCE PROGRAM (FRRP) to develop resilience-based management strategies for anticipating and addressing climate change and other stressors on Floridaʼs coral reefs. We use AQUALINK, a real-time global ocean temperature monitoring platform that allows users to create sites of interest to virtually track heat stress or via deployed solar-powered Aqualink Smart Buoys by SOFAR. Advanced features include live streams and additional instrumentation that measure water quality parameters or temperature tracking using temperature LOGGERS.

NOAA CORAL REEF WATCH

The most widely used global early-warning system of coral reef ecosystem environmental changes. MODELED OUTLOOK and SATELLITE-BASED PRODUCTS help coral reef stakeholders predict and monitor the thermal stress that drives coral bleaching, disease, and death in near-real time.

NATIONAL CORAL REEF
MONITORING PROGRAM (NCRMP)

NATIONAL CORAL REEF MONITORING PROGRAM (NCRMP) – Monitors coral health in U.S. States and Territories

ATLANTIC GULF AND
RAPID REEF ASSESSMENT (AGRRA)

AGRRA – Standardized coral reef monitoring protocol with bleach watch portal (multiple methods such as Bardrop, belt, and point transects).

ALLEN CORAL ATLAS

THE ALLEN CORAL ATLAS partnership uses high-resolution satellite imagery (Planet Dove), machine learning, and field data to map and monitor the worldʼs coral reefs at unprecedented global coverage.