scholarly journals Floating and fixed artificial habitats: effects of substratum motion on benthic communities in a coral reef environment

2006 ◽  
Vol 317 ◽  
pp. 9-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Perkol-Finkel ◽  
G Zilman ◽  
I Sella ◽  
T Miloh ◽  
Y Benayahu
2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuko Stender ◽  
Michael Foley ◽  
Ku’ulei Rodgers ◽  
Paul Jokiel ◽  
Amarjit Singh

AbstractConstruction of breakwaters provides an engineering solution for coastal protection. However, little effort has been made toward understanding the ecological impact on local coral reef ecosystems and developing engineering structures that would enhance the coral reef environment. A submerged breakwater proposed for Kahului Commercial Harbor, Hawai‘i, provided an opportunity to design a multi-purpose ‘reef structure’ to mitigate wave impacts while providing new coral reef habitat. This design involved ecological and environmental considerations alongside engineering principles, serving as a model for environmentally sound harbor development. This field study evaluated environmental conditions and reef community composition at the proposed site in a gradient extending outward from the harbor, using in situ data with multivariate analyses. Benthic and topographic features in the area were assessed using a towed drop camera system to relate to biological factors. Results that support breakwater topography should follow the natural spur and groove and depth of the adjacent reef and orient with wave direction. A deep area characterized by unconsolidated substrata and low coral cover would be replaced with the shallow, sloping hard bottom of the breakwater, and provide an exemplary area for corals to flourish while protecting the harbor from large ocean swells. Surfaces on shallow sloping hard bottoms receive higher levels of irradiance that benefits coral growth. Optimal levels of water motion facilitate sediment removal and promote coral recruitment and growth. The design of the Kahului Harbor submerged multi-purpose structure serves as a model for design of shoreline modification that enhances, rather than degrades, the local coral reef environment.


Author(s):  
Pauleen Ong ◽  
Muhammad Suzuri Hitam ◽  
Zainuddin Bachok ◽  
Mohd Safuan Che Din

At present, marine scientists employ manual method to estimate the components in coral reef environment, where Coral Point Count with Excel extensions (CPCe) software is used to determine the coral reef components and substrate coverage. This manual process is laborious and time consuming, and needs experts to conduct the survey. In this paper, a prototype for estimating the distribution of sand cover in coral reef environment from still images by using colour extraction methods was introduced. The colour segmentation called delta E was used to calculate the colour difference between two colour samples. Another method used was colour threshold by setting the range of sand colour pixels. The system was developed by using a MATLAB software with image processing toolbox. The developed system was semi-automatic computer-based system that can be used by researchers even with little knowledge and experience to estimate the percentage of sand coverage in coral reef still images.


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 4897-4909 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. R. N. Anthony ◽  
G. Diaz-Pulido ◽  
N. Verlinden ◽  
B. Tilbrook ◽  
A. J. Andersson

Abstract. Ocean acidification is a threat to marine ecosystems globally. In shallow-water systems, however, ocean acidification can be masked by benthic carbon fluxes, depending on community composition, seawater residence time, and the magnitude and balance of net community production (NCP) and calcification (NCC). Here, we examine how six benthic groups from a coral reef environment on Heron Reef (Great Barrier Reef, Australia) contribute to changes in the seawater aragonite saturation state (Ωa). Results of flume studies using intact reef habitats (1.2 m by 0.4 m), showed a hierarchy of responses across groups, depending on CO2 level, time of day and water flow. At low CO2 (350–450 μatm), macroalgae (Chnoospora implexa), turfs and sand elevated Ωa of the flume water by around 0.10 to 1.20 h−1 – normalised to contributions from 1 m2 of benthos to a 1 m deep water column. The rate of Ωa increase in these groups was doubled under acidification (560–700 μatm) and high flow (35 compared to 8 cm s−1). In contrast, branching corals (Acropora aspera) increased Ωa by 0.25 h−1 at ambient CO2 (350–450 μatm) during the day, but reduced Ωa under acidification and high flow. Nighttime changes in Ωa by corals were highly negative (0.6–0.8 h−1) and exacerbated by acidification. Calcifying macroalgae (Halimeda spp.) raised Ωa by day (by around 0.13 h−1), but lowered Ωa by a similar or higher amount at night. Analyses of carbon flux contributions from benthic communities with four different compositions to the reef water carbon chemistry across Heron Reef flat and lagoon indicated that the net lowering of Ωa by coral-dominated areas can to some extent be countered by long water-residence times in neighbouring areas dominated by turfs, macroalgae and carbonate sand.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. 441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhenjin Zhou ◽  
Lei Ma ◽  
Tengyu Fu ◽  
Ge Zhang ◽  
Mengru Yao ◽  
...  

Despite increases in the spatial resolution of satellite imagery prompting interest in object-based image analysis, few studies have used object-based methods for monitoring changes in coral reefs. This study proposes a high accuracy object-based change detection (OBCD) method intended for coral reef environment, which uses QuickBird and WorldView-2 images. The proposed methodological framework includes image fusion, multi-temporal image segmentation, image differencing, random forests models, and object-area-based accuracy assessment. For validation, we applied the method to images of four coral reef study sites in the South China Sea. We compared the proposed OBCD method with a conventional pixel-based change detection (PBCD) method by implementing both methods under the same conditions. The average overall accuracy of OBCD exceeded 90%, which was approximately 20% higher than PBCD. The OBCD method was free from salt-and-pepper effects and was less prone to images misregistration in terms of change detection accuracy and mapping results. The object-area-based accuracy assessment reached a higher overall accuracy and per-class accuracy than the object-number-based and pixel-number-based accuracy assessment.


2015 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. I_772-I_777
Author(s):  
Ryuichiro NISHI ◽  
Yoshihisa TSURUNARI ◽  
Kazunori HOSOTANI ◽  
Mario de Leon ◽  
Isao MATSUMOTO ◽  
...  

2012 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 357-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel F. S. Massaro ◽  
Eric Heinen De Carlo ◽  
Patrick S. Drupp ◽  
Fred T. Mackenzie ◽  
Stacy Maenner Jones ◽  
...  

2011 ◽  
Vol 91 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy T. Claisse ◽  
Timothy B. Clark ◽  
Brett D. Schumacher ◽  
Sarah A. McTee ◽  
Megan E. Bushnell ◽  
...  

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