About This Project

We will use new image-based technology and integrate it to our historical data gathered since 2000 to enhance our coral reef population monitoring program. This will guide current management efforts in a neglected coral oasis in Southeastern Brazil. This initiative is crucial since these reefs are under intense local impacts. The new methodology promises insights into coral health that our current methods have not yet provided.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

In the 1960s, Jacques Laborel called Búzios (Rio de Janeiro) a "coral oasis" due to its high coral cover, supporting rich marine life and vital ecological services. However, the area has been largely overlooked by the coral reef community. Since Laborel's study, Búzios' population has skyrocketed from 2,500 to 40,000, leading to a heavily urbanized coastline and significant pressure on its coral habitats.

We have monitored these reefs since 2000, gathering health and demographic data through visual census. These efforts provide the only historical baseline for determining coral health. However, our recent assessments show the visual method's shortcomings, mainly its inability to correlate health data with increases in other organisms. This could be addressed using an image-based approach.

What is the significance of this project?

Búzios supports a rich marine life that provides income for artisanal fishing families and tourism workers.
Our project collaborates with local authorities to provide guidelines that will manage activities around the reefs. However, without an image-based approach to gain a more comprehensive view of the benthic community, thorough assessments are impossible.

The orthomosaic images built from photos taken underwater will allow us to estimate the dynamics of corals in relation to competitors (such as zoanthids and cyanobacteria - see video below), which cannot be directly assessed by our current visual census estimates. Also, the photos provide an unbiased permanent record of the reef conditions that allows future comparisons.

What are the goals of the project?

Our main goal is to enhance monitoring of Búzios' coral habitats with a new reef assessment tool. This includes i) conducting a field expedition to compare the traditional visual census (measuring individual colonies with tapes) with orthomosaics created by underwater photos; ii) calibrating measurements from both methods to rescale our historical data from 2000, 2008, 2016 and 2024 which covers more than 4,500 colonies; iii) using the new method to improve our existing coral health analysis based on colony size and other demographic parameters (e.g. tissue mortality); iv) utilizing orthomosaics to estimate coral growth/decline compared to other reef organisms in future assessments; v) creating underwater maps to guide reef management by local enforcement partners.