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Research
 Bioactive
discovery
Biodiversity
assessment
Bio-innovation
Environmental change
Status
and trends
Sustainable
development
Tropical
aquaculture
Water
quality in the GBR
Research links
Across
the top
AIMS
Western Australia
AIMS-IBM-KEPCO-UOG
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scientists CV's
ARNAT
AUSCORE
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publications
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to relevant sites
Research
plan 2007-11
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Status and trends
"Monitoring reef health"
The Great Barrier
Reef (GBR) is a national treasure and an international
icon…its health is of global concern.
| The core of
the Status and Trends Team is the Long-term Monitoring
program that has been tracking the condition of the GBR
for more than a decade, by surveying fish, corals,
crown-of-thorns starfish, and coral disease. The
Monitoring Team is the premier research body focussing on
the condition of coral reef ecosystems in the Great
Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. .
As well as surveying reefs,
the team develops survey methods and reports on the status
of reefs in Australia and internationally, providing
services for industry, governments, and the community.
|
AIMS has been unlocking the secrets
of the Great Barrier Reef for more
than 30 years. (Image: AIMS) |
The AIMS monitoring program is
one of the largest coral reef monitoring programs in the world |
Our Research probes:
- Health of the Great Barrier Reef
- Health of Reefs of the World
- Status of inshore reefs of the Great Barrier Reef
- The effectiveness of offshore marine parks in northern
Australia
For the most update information about the GBR
 Monmap
Results of our latest reef survey
Reef
monitoring
Coral Reefs of the World
| The Global Coral
Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) aims to gather information on
the status of coral reefs around the world and assist countries
to set up monitoring. It is a global network of people,
governments, institutes and NGOs in over 80 countries under the
umbrella of the International Coral Reef Initiative, and is
closely associated with AIMS.
Dr Clive Wilkinson of AIMS is the
Global Coordinator of GCRMN and is author of the flagship
publication "Status of Coral Reefs of the World" produced
bi-annually by AIMS. The book reviews status of the world reefs,
progress in management, identifies gaps and reveals successful
approaches (since 1996) that might be applied more generally.
The first review was in 1998 and
has appeared every 2 years.
More information
Status
of coral reefs of the world: 2004
complete e-book on
line
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Status
of Coral Reefs of the World:
produced by AIMS for the
Global Coral Reef monitoring Network.
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Our Team
The Status and Trends research team includes 7 members of the
Long-term Monitoring team, a biostatistician, and a data base
manager. The members of the field team are monitoring experts and
spend up to 100 days at sea each year. These researchers also
develop and refine underwater survey methods such as video sampling
which has proven to be an effective way to document reef health.
Collecting the data is only the first stage of the monitoring
process, the information on the condition of reefs of the GBR must
be processed and summarised to be relevant to managers and the
general public. Streamlined web based reporting using automatically
generated summaries and multi-media presentation has become the most
effective means of reaching stakeholders.
| Status of inshore reef
There is general agreement that inshore reefs are most at risk
from human activities. To date monitoring of these reefs has
been limited.
This Team is conducting a baseline survey of inshore reefs
from Cooktown to Gladstone.
This information will be important when assessing the
effectiveness of changed land management and other interventions
to be implemented under the Reef Water Quality Protection Plan
Off shore Reefs
The AIMS Long-term Monitoring Team has been enlisted by the
Dept of Environment and Heritage to conduct surveys on reefs in
remote tropical locations.
Offshore reefs in the Coral Sea as well as Scott Reef,
Cartier Reef and the Mermaid Shoals off Western Australia are
all areas hit hard by bleaching in the recent past. These reefs
are the subject of this project.
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| White syndrome
Incidence of coral disease are
recorded in SCUBA search surveys
by the reef monitoring team.
Extensive experience combined
with time spent on the Reef enables this team to provide an
early warning of emerging issues or threats. For example,
the field team observed increasing occurrence of the coral
disease white syndrome in 2002 and reported to the
authorities.
More information
 Coral
diseases on the Great Barrier Reef |
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Coral bleaching
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The
reef monitoring project records bleaching
information in broadscale surveys, scuba search and
from video transects.
More information
Coral bleaching ordered by year.
Coral
bleaching index
A
summary of change in hard coral cover on 50
reefs surveyed by the reef monitoring project
following the 1998 bleaching event.
Broadscale
impacts of coral bleaching on GBR survey reefs
(1997-99)
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"Surveying
the reef"
Manta
board in use
(Image: AIMS)
The monitoring team spends more
than 100 days at sea each year surveying reefs from Cooktown to
Gladstone. |
Contact
Dr
Hugh Sweatman, Team Leader
Telephone: (07) 4753 4470.
Facsimile: (07) 4772 5852.
Email: h.sweatman@aims.gov
April 6, 2005
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