Department of Defense Coral Reef Initiative Database

Coral Reef Initiative Database

Reef Assessment Methods

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The purpose of this section is to:

Provide documentation on established scientific procedures for conducting coral reef assessments

Reef Assessment Method References

Where noted, some referenced documents are available. To view a document, click on the hyperlink following the reference; hyperlinks will be underlined when the mouse pointer is on them.

Allison, A and RA Englund. 2005. Methods for terrestrial animal and aquatic invertebrate faunal surveys. In: Biodiversity assessment of tropical island ecosystems: PABITRA manual for interactive ecology and management. D. Mueller-Dombrois, KW Bridges, and CC Daehler (eds.). pp. 49-70.

Baily, B. and D. Nowell. 1996. Techniques for monitoring coastal change: a review and case study. Ocean & Coastal Management 32(2): 85-95.

Bannerot, J. B. a. S. (1986). "A stationary visual census technique for quantitatively assessing community structure of coral reef fishes." NOAA Technical Report NMFS 41: 1-15.

Bauer, G. B. 2005. Research Training for Releasable Animals. Conservation Biology 19(6): 1779-1789.

Bohnsack, J., and Bannerot, SP (1986). "A stationary visual census technique for quantitatively assessing community structure of coral reef fishes." NOAA Technical Report NMFS 41: 1-15.

Brown, B. E. (1997). Disturbances to Reefs in Recent Times. Life and Death of Coral Reefs. C. Birkeland. New York, Chapman & Hall.

Brown, EK, E Cox, PL Jokiel, SK Rodgers, WR Smith, SL Coles, and J Hultquist. 2004. Development of benthic sampling methods for the Coral Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program (CRAMP) in Hawai’i. Pacific Science 58(2):145-158.

Campana, S.E. 2001. Accuracy, precision and quality control in age determination, including a review of the use and abuse of age validation methods. Journal of Fish Biology 59:197-242.

Cappo M, De’ath G, Speare P (2007) Inter-reef vertebrate communities of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park determined by baited remote underwater video stations. Marine Ecology Progress Series 350:209-221.

Chang, Y. C., F. W. Hong and M. T. Lee. 2008. A system dynamic based DSS for sustainable coral reef management in Kenting coastal zone, Taiwan. Ecological Modelling 211:153-168.

Crosby, MP and ES Reese. 1996. A manual for monitoring coral reefs with indicator species: Butterflyfishes as indicators of change on Indo Pacific reefs. Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Silver Spring, MD. 45 pp.

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. 2007. Biophysical assessment of the reefs of Keppel Bay: a baseline study. April 2007. Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. Townsville, Australia. 33pp.

Hales, S., Weinstein, P. and Woodward, A. (1999). Ciguatera (Fish Poisoning), El Nino, and Pacific Sea Surface Temperatures. Ecosystem Health 5(1): 20-25.

Jameson, SC, MV Erdmann, GR Gibson,Jr., and KW Potts. 1998. Development of Biological criteria for coral reef ecosystem assessment. Atoll Research Bulletin No. 450.

Jan, R.-Q., Y.-T. Shao, F.-P. Lin, T.-Y. Fan, Y.0Y. Tu, H.-S. Tsai and K.-T. Shao. 2007. An underwater camera system for real-time coral reef fish monitoring. The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology Supplement No. 14:273-279.

Kohler, S. T. and C. C. Kohler (1992). "Dead bleached coral provides new surfaces for dinoflagellates implicated in ciguatera fish poisonings." Env. Biol. Fish. 35: 413-416.

Littler, M. M., D. S. Littler, B. L. Brooks, and B. E. Lapointe. 2006. Nutrient manipulation methods for coral reef studies: a critical review and experimental field data. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 336:242-253.

Lobel, P. S., D. M. Anderson, et al. (1988). "Assessment of ciguatera dinoflagellate populations: sample variability and algal substrate selection." Biological Bulletin 175: 94-101.

MacDonald, DA, MB Matta, LJ Field, C Cairncross, and MD Munn. 2003. The Coastal Resource Coordinator’s Bioassessment Manual. Report No. HAZMAT 93-1.

Marks, KW and KD Klomp. 2003. Appendix two, Fish biomass conversion equations. Atoll Research Bulletin No. 496: 625- 630.

Marnane, M. J. and D. R. Bellwood. 1997. Marker technique for investigating gut throughput rates in coral reef fishes. Marine Biology 129: 15-22.

Meekan, M.G., Wilson, S.G, Halford, A. and Retzel A. 2001. A comparison of catches of fishes and invertebrate by two light trap designs, in tropical NW Australia. Marine Biology. 139: 373-381.

Phinn, S. R., A. G. Dekker, V. E. Brando and C. M. Roelfsema. 2005. Mapping water quality and substrate cover in optically complex coastal and reef waters: an integrated approach. Marine Pollution Bulletin 51:459-469.

Poli, M. A., Lewis, R.J., Dickey, R.W., Musser, S.M., Buckner, C.A., and Carpenter, L.G. (1997). "Identification of caribbean ciguatoxins as the cause of an outbreak of fish poisoning among U.S. soldiers in Haiti." Toxicon 35(5): 733-741.

Preskitt, LB, PS Vroom, and CM Smith. 2004. A Rapid Ecological Assessment (REA) quanitative survey method for benthic algae using photoquadrats with Scuba. Pacific Science 58(2):201-209.

Ragelis, E. P. (1984). Ciguatera seafood poisoning: overview. Seafood toxins. E. P. Ragelis. Washington, D.C., American Chemical Society. Series no. 262: 25-36.

Randall, J. E. (1958). "A review of ciguatera, tropical fish poisoning, with a tentative explanation of its cause." Bull. Mar. Sci. Gulf and Caribbean 8: 236-267.

Robertson, D. R. and W. F. Smith-Vaniz. 2008. Rotenone: an essential but demonized tool for assessing marine fish diversity. BioScience 58(2):165-170.

Rowland, W. J. 1979. Some methods of making realistic fish dummies for ethological research. Behavior Research Methods and Instrumentation 11(6):564-566.

Ruff, T. A. (1989). "Ciguatera in the Pacific: a link with military activities." The Lancet: 201-204.

Schmitt, E. F., Sluka, R.D., Sullivan-Sealey, K.M (2002). "Evaluating the use of roving diver and transect surveys to assess the coral reef fish assemblage off southeastern Hispaniola." Coral Reefs 21: 216-223.

Seaman, W. 2007. Artificial habitats and the restoration of degraded marine ecosystems and fisheries. Hydrobiologia 580:143-155.

Scopélitis, J., S. Andréfouët and C. Largouët. 2007. Modelling coral reef habitat trajectories: Evaluation of an integrated timed automata and remote sensing approach. Ecological Modelling 205(1-2): 59-80.

Shaish, L., G. Levy, E. Gomez and B. Rinkevich. 2008. Fixed and suspended coral nurseries in the Philippines: Establishing the first step in the “gardening concept” of reef restoration. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 358(1):86-97.

Thomas, S. and P. Ridd. 2005. Field assessment of innovative sensor for monitoring of sediment accumulation at inshore coral reefs. Marine Pollution Bulletin 51:470-480.

Yasumoto, T., Nakajima, I., Bagnis, R.A. and Adachi, R. (1977b). "Finding of a dinoflagellate as a likely culprit of ciguatera." Bull. Jpn. Soc. Sci. Fish. 46: 1397-1404.

Hu, F., Y. Oozeki, T. Tokai and K. Matuda. 2001. Scale model of a new midwater trawl system for sampling pelagic larval and juvenile fish. Fisheries Science 67:254-259.