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\"My family's disastrous attempts to go camping in the 70s...For the seventies child, summer holidays didn't mean the joy of CentreParcs or the sophistication of a Tuscan Villa. They meant being crammed into a car with Grandma and heading to the coast. With just a tent for a home and a bucket for the necessities, we would set off on new adventures each year stoically resolving to enjoy ourselves. For Emma Kennedy and her mum and dad, disaster always came along for the ride no matter where they went. Whether it was being swept away by a force ten gale on the Welsh coast or suffering copious amounts of food poisoning on a brave trip to the south of France, family holidays always left them battered and bruised.\"--Publisher description.

Ecosystem monitoring is central to effective management, where rapid reporting is essential to provide timely advice. While digital imagery has greatly improved the speed of underwater data collection for monitoring benthic communities, image analysis remains a bottleneck in reporting observations. In recent years, a rapid evolution of artificial intelligence in image recognition has been evident in its broad applications in modern society, offering new opportunities for increasing the capabilities of coral reef monitoring. Here, we evaluated the performance of Deep Learning Convolutional Neural Networks for automated image analysis, using a global coral reef monitoring dataset. The study demonstrates the advantages of automated image analysis for coral reef monitoring in terms of error and repeatability of benthic abundance estimations, as well as cost and benefit. We found unbiased and high agreement between expert and automated observations (97%). Repeated surveys and comparisons against existing monitoring programs also show that automated estimation of benthic composition is equally robust in detecting change and ensuring the continuity of existing monitoring data. Using this automated approach, data analysis and reporting can be accelerated by at least 200x and at a fraction of the cost (1%). Combining commonly used underwater imagery in monitoring with automated image annotation can dramatically improve how we measure and monitor coral reefs worldwide, particularly in terms of allocating limited resources, rapid reporting and data integration within and across management areas.

\"This 1944 World War Two drama tells the story of Anthony, a boy living in a deprived Welsh village, anticipating the arrival of American troops. Suddenly, a German plane crashes into the village mountain. A Polish prisoner-of-war survives and is brought into the community where he builds a close relationship with Anthony. Later, the villagers discover one of the Germans on the plane has survived and is still on the mountain. Joyous, thrilling, and nostalgic, Emma Kennedy's Shoes For Anthony will have you wiping your eyes one moment and beaming from ear-to-ear the next. This is a small gem of a novel that reviewers (and readers) will cherish\"-- Provided by publisher.

Reduced seawater pH and changes in carbonate chemistry associated with ocean acidification (OA) decrease the recruitment of crustose coralline algae (CCAcf.), an important coral-reef builder. However, it is unclear whether the observed decline in recruitment is driven by impairment of spore germination, or post-settlement processes (e.g. space competition). To address this, we conducted an experiment using a dominant CCA, Porolithon cf. onkodes to test the independent and combined effects of OA, warming, and irradiance on its germination success and early development. Elevated CO2 negatively affected several processes of spore germination, including formation of the germination disc, initial growth, and germling survival. The magnitude of these effects varied depending on the levels of temperature and irradiance. For example, the combination of high CO2 and high temperature reduced formation of the germination disc, but this effect was independent of irradiance levels, while spore abnormalities increased under high CO2 and high temperature particularly in combination with low irradiance intensity. This study demonstrates that spore germination of CCA is impacted by the independent and interactive effects of OA, increasing seawater temperature and irradiance intensity. For the first time, this provides a mechanism for how the sensitivity of critical early life history processes to global change may drive declines of adult populations of key marine calcifiers.

Coral reefs are among the most diverse and iconic ecosystems on Earth, but a range of anthropogenic pressures are threatening their persistence. Owing to their remoteness, broad spatial coverage and cross‐jurisdictional locations, there are no high‐resolution remotely sensed maps available at the global scale. Here we present a framework that is capable of mapping coral reef habitats from individual reefs (~200 km2) to entire barrier reef systems (200 000 km2) and across vast ocean extents (>6 000 000 km2). This is the first time this has been demonstrated using a consistent and transparent remote sensing mapping framework. The ten maps that we present achieved good accuracy (78% mean overall accuracy) from multiple input image datasets and training data sources, and our framework was shown to be adaptable to either benthic or geomorphic reef features and across diverse coral reef environments. These new generation high‐resolution map data will be useful for supporting ecosystem risk assessments, detecting change in ecosystem dynamics and targeting efforts to monitor local‐scale changes in coral cover and reef health. Here we present a mapping framework for coral reefs from the scale of individual reefs to the entire reef systems across millions of square kilometers of ocean. The framework can utilize a wide range of input covariate and training data sources, and outputs both geomorphic and benthic map types. The maps presented are the largest ever coral reefs maps produced from a consistent and transparent remote sensing approach.

Coral reef ecosystems are seriously threatened by changing conditions in the ocean. Although many factors are implicated, climate change has emerged as a dominant and rapidly growing threat. Developing a long‐term strategic plan for the conservation of coral reefs is urgently needed yet is complicated by significant uncertainty associated with climate change impacts on coral reef ecosystems. We use Modern Portfolio Theory to identify coral reef locations globally that, in the absence of other impacts, are likely to have a heightened chance of surviving projected climate changes relative to other reefs. Long‐term planning that is robust to uncertainty in future conditions provides an objective and transparent framework for guiding conservation action and strategic investment. These locations constitute important opportunities for novel conservation investments to secure less vulnerable yet well‐connected coral reefs that may, in turn, help to repopulate degraded areas in the event that the climate has stabilized.

Ocean warming and acidification threaten the future growth of coral reefs. This is because the calcifying coral reef taxa that construct the calcium carbonate frameworks and cement the reef together are highly sensitive to ocean warming and acidification. However, the global-scale effects of ocean warming and acidification on rates of coral reef net carbonate production remain poorly constrained despite a wealth of studies assessing their effects on the calcification of individual organisms. Here, we present global estimates of projected future changes in coral reef net carbonate production under ocean warming and acidification. We apply a meta-analysis of responses of coral reef taxa calcification and bioerosion rates to predicted changes in coral cover driven by climate change to estimate the net carbonate production rates of 183 reefs worldwide by 2050 and 2100. We forecast mean global reef net carbonate production under representative concentration pathways (RCP) 2.6, 4.5, and 8.5 will decline by 76, 149, and 156%, respectively, by 2100. While 63% of reefs are projected to continue to accrete by 2100 under RCP2.6, 94% will be eroding by 2050 under RCP8.5, and no reefs will continue to accrete at rates matching projected sea level rise under RCP4.5 or 8.5 by 2100. Projected reduced coral cover due to bleaching events predominately drives these declines rather than the direct physiological impacts of ocean warming and acidification on calcification or bioerosion. Presently degraded reefs were also more sensitive in our analysis. These findings highlight the low likelihood that the world’s coral reefs will maintain their functional roles without near-term stabilization of atmospheric CO₂ emissions.

The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is of immense biological, cultural and economic importance, but has also rapidly degraded over the last 30 years. Improved spatial information on reef geomorphic zonation and benthic cover type (including coral type) is critical to support scientific work to understand how the GBR is changing, and to support resource management decisions that enable conservation of the reef and its essential ecosystem services. Yet, no comprehensive maps exist that detail the geomorphic zonation or benthic cover for the GBR’s ~ 3000 reefs. This study presents three new types of shallow reef maps for 237 reefs in the central Cairns Management Region of the GBR Marine Park (GBRMP), explores how the detailed habitat maps created compared to current maps and posits how the new maps may support and refine current critical key science outputs and management challenges. Geomorphic Zonation, Benthic Cover and Coral Type habitat maps were created using a unique combined object-based image analysis and ecological modelling approach that incorporated satellite imagery, limited field data and key reef physical attributes (depth, slope, waves) using a previously peer-reviewed mapping approach developed for the Capricorn Bunker Group reefs, Southern GBR. The mapping approach was consistent and repeatable, suggesting applicability to mapping all 3000 reefs in the GBRMP. Compared to existing maps that only outline each reef, the increase in detail provided by these new habitat maps enabled discrete characterisation of each reef’s geomorphology and benthic composition. With the new habitat maps, areas within each reef can be identified as either coral habitat or not coral habitat. This has not been possible previously. As such, a model of coral ecological and biophysical processes that depends on bottom reflectance of sand and coral areas can be fine-tuned. Similarly, for reef restoration, nursery structures are commonly placed in non-coral habitats, and/or coral larvae are dispersed in areas of known coral habitat. The new habitat maps presented permit more accurate identification of these areas such that restoration projects can be targeted more effectively. These findings confirm the need to now apply this mapping approach to the full extent of the GBR.

Coral reef management and conservation stand to benefit from improved high-resolution global mapping. Yet classifications underpinning large-scale reef mapping to date are typically poorly defined, not shared or region-specific, limiting end-users’ ability to interpret outputs. Here we present Reef Cover , a coral reef geomorphic zone classification, developed to support both producers and end-users of global-scale coral reef habitat maps, in a transparent and version-based framework. Scalable classes were created by focusing on attributes that can be observed remotely, but whose membership rules also reflect deep knowledge of reef form and functioning. Bridging the divide between earth observation data and geo-ecological knowledge of reefs, Reef Cover maximises the trade-off between applicability at global scales, and relevance and accuracy at local scales. Two case studies demonstrate application of the Reef Cover classification scheme and its scientific and conservation benefits: 1) detailed mapping of the Cairns Management Region of the Great Barrier Reef to support management and 2) mapping of the Caroline and Mariana Island chains in the Pacific for conservation purposes. Measurement(s) habitat Technology Type(s) satellite imaging • digital curation Sample Characteristic - Organism Anthozoa Sample Characteristic - Environment marine biome • coral reef Sample Characteristic - Location global Machine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.14397182

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is a globally unique and precious national resource; however, the geomorphic and benthic composition and the extent of coral habitat per reef are greatly understudied. However, this is critical to understand the spatial extent of disturbance impacts and recovery potential. This study characterizes and quantifies coral habitat based on depth, geomorphic and benthic composition maps of more than 2164 shallow offshore GBR reefs. The mapping approach combined a Sentinel-2 satellite surface reflectance image mosaic and derived depth, wave climate, reef slope and field data in a random-forest machine learning and object-based protocol. Area calculations, for the first time, incorporated the 3D characteristic of the reef surface above 20 m. Geomorphic zonation maps (0–20 m) provided a reef extent estimate of 28,261 km2 (a 31% increase to current estimates), while benthic composition maps (0–10 m) estimated that ~10,600 km2 of reef area (~57% of shallow offshore reef area) was covered by hard substrate suitable for coral growth, the first estimate of potential coral habitat based on substrate availability. Our high-resolution maps provide valuable information for future monitoring and ecological modeling studies and constitute key tools for supporting the management, conservation and restoration efforts of the GBR.