Hendee, J. C., Florit, L., Jankulak, M., Stabenau, E. R.

Integrating in situ, satellite and other data sources for marine protected area decision support and coral reef research

2006

Transactions, American Geophysical Union

87

36 supplement

Consistent with NOAA's Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) and Coral Reef Ecosystem Integrated Observing System (CREIOS) programs, the coral research and monitoring program at NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) has developed artificial intelligence software for a true integration of data from automated field monitoring stations, satellites and biological surveys to aid MPA managers and coral reef researchers. This system has been dubbed the Integrated Coral Observing Network (ICON, formerly called CREWS) and has many capabilities, of which some are: production of automated reports of instrument status, production of coral bleaching or environmental reports, and development of tables of integrated data upon which a suite of expert systems conducts inferencing algorithms to reflect ecosystem models. The software converts complex data streams into custom plain language reports focusing on the end-user's specific research or monitoring objectives, and thus provides timely feedback for model validation. Presented is an overview of the ICON system with emphasis on integrated products developed for the coral reef ecosystem at Molasses Reef in the Florida Keys. Forecasts for coral reef ecosystems and their surrounding communities that include multiple stressors and multiple outcome scenarios will be discussed. Innovations within this program that allow the development of research programs while simultaneously delivering management products, unifying research and monitoring needs, will be presented.

Coral reef ecology /monitoring /Marine parks and reserves - management /research /Florida Keys /decision support systems

CSA Abstract