Evaluating the efficacy of management zones in the FKNMS: Integrating visual and photogrammetric surveys, and passive acoustics to characterize reef fish assemblages and spawning activity across coral reef management regimes
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Aquaculture, Fisheries and Fish Science, Biodiversity, Biophysics, Conservation Biology, Marine Biology
- Keywords
- biodviersity, coral reefs, underwater soundscapes, multidisciplinary, passive acoustics, photogrammetry, reef fish
- Copyright
- © 2018 Simmons et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2018. Evaluating the efficacy of management zones in the FKNMS: Integrating visual and photogrammetric surveys, and passive acoustics to characterize reef fish assemblages and spawning activity across coral reef management regimes. PeerJ Preprints 6:e26720v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.26720v1
Abstract
New technological approaches in marine ecology, such as (1) passive acoustics to characterize underwater soundscapes, and (2) habitat photogrammetry, which provides high-res, 3D images of habitats, can facilitate efficient and accurate assessments of coral reefs. In collaboration with the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWCC) and NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuary Program (NMSP), multidisciplinary, non-invasive research approaches provide transformative ways to characterize reef fish biodiversity as well as the ecological function of essential, hard-bottom habitats. The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS) is an ideal study system due to several replicate marine reserve types in addition to existing historical data on reef fish and benthic communities. Underwater soundscape results show significantly different spectral patterns for each site, such that protected sites displayed higher average spectra in low frequencies than fished sites. Additionally, species and family-specific fish chorusing was identified during crepuscular hours at several protected sites. Photogrammetry surveys produced a 3D elevation model used to characterize differences in coral composition contributing to vertical relief. Initial results suggest biodiversity and other ecosystem metrics generally increase with level of protection. These data provide critical baseline evaluations for Post- Hurricane Irma impacts and may assist in monitoring the recovery of coral reefs.
Author Comment
This is an abstract which has been accepted for the WCMB.