Shay Viehman

2021

2022

2023

Evaluation of the success of coral reef restoration requires monitoring of changes over time. Effective monitoring data and analyses allows for detection of change and implementation of mid-course corrections as needed. Mission: Iconic Reefs (M:IR) is a large-scale restoration project in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary with many restoration partners. The M:IR restoration goals and primary success metric is based on the change in % cover of corals from restoration. To quantify this change, much of the benthic monitoring is based on large area imaging (LAI) in order to capture and archive as much information as possible, as well as to provide timely understanding of progress and changes. This project focuses on evaluating metrics of change in corals and the benthic community from coral restoration, including coral cover, coral population demographics, benthic community changes, and reef structural complexity metrics at the permanent sites for M:IR monitoring (132 planned sites). This project is an evaluation of baseline conditions and any detectable change in corals and benthic communities in the initial years of coral outplanting at the FKNMS M:IR monitoring sites. This project is in partnership with FKNMS and fulfills many of the benthic monitoring objectives identified in the M:IR Working Group for Monitoring and Research. We are implementing an analyses pipeline that includes the following softwares: Agisoft Metashape, Viscore (UCSD), TagLab, R, and ArcGIS. In Year 1 (FY22 execution): we: 1) provided field training in imagery acquisition to the M:IR field team to build capacity, 2) established the Azure cloud computing workflow for data sharing between FKNMS and NCCOS, analyses, and data storage, 3) implemented the Agisoft Metashape analyses component for creation of orthomosaics and created mosaics for all imagery collected by the M:IR field team (70 total), 4) implemented the Viscore workflow for % cover and summarized results with R statistical software (57 to date), 5) communicated with the M:IR team for ad-hoc and regular updates, 6) communicated with the M:IR Monitoring Working Group. In Year 2 (FY23 execution) we have and plan to: 1) training the M:IR team on Viscore % cover analyses to build capacity (beginning Feb 2023), 2) continuing to execute the Agisoft Metashape (orthophotomosaic), Viscore (% cover), and R summaries of the % cover workflow components with new imagery acquired by the M:IR team, 3) beginning to implement the TagLab (individual coral measurements of size, growth, condition) workflow on existing and new imagery and R code development, 4) continuing the open partnership with FKNMS and communication with the M:IR Monitoring Group, and 5) presented at Reef Futures 2022 (M:IR session). We will work with the FKNMS M:IR Data Manager to archive data according to NCEI standards. In Year 3 (FY24), we will 1) continue to execute this project with an eye towards potentially scaling up the size of imagery, 2) create summary reports of analyzed data.

Outcomes of this project include: 1) development of the M:IR Monitoring and Research Plan sections on coral and benthic community monitoring, 2) baseline photogrammetry analyses and development of photomosaic models (orthophotomosaics), and extraction of benthic ecological metrics from imagery (e.g., coral population metrics, cover of corals and benthic communities, and structural complexity), data summaries, and data visualizations including a reproducible research report template. Outcomes will support M:IR management and baseline benthic monitoring, provide tracking of M:IR baseline conditions and initial change, and allow for adaptive management actions and more robust planning for future years of the M:IR restoration effort.

• Florida

Restoration

Funding Ended

https://www.coris.noaa.gov/search/rest/find/document?searchText=projectNumber%3A31375%20OR%20projectTitle%3A"Supporting%20FL%20Iconic%20Reefs%20restoration%20with%20photogrammetry"&start=1&max=10&f=searchPage