Abstract Summary
Photomosaics can be a useful scientific tool for efficiently and accurately analyzing large numbers of coral outplants. Coral Restoration Foundation, Inc. (CRF) has developed cost-effective, in-house procedures for creating large-scale (~2,000 sq meters) reef photomosaics of reefs for the purposes of long-term monitoring of Acropora spp. outplants. Here, we compare the monitoring data obtained using standard, in-water data recordings of coral survivorship and health, with that obtained using photomosaics, for transects of outplanted corals located at Carysfort Reef located off of north Key Largo, Florida. We expect to show that (1) similar information can be obtained from each method with comparable accuracy and (2) that photomosaics offer the potential to capture additional, more complex information for calculating sophisticated metrics, such as percent coral cover. Already, photomosaics created by CRF immediately before and after Hurricane Irma allowed for analysis of large areas of reef- not just individual outplanted corals- and provide a clear snap-shot of coral cover. As restoration efforts increase in the future, photomosaics can also offer a way for monitoring emphases to shift from individual corals to entire reef communities, thus allowing natural dynamics such as asexual fragmentation to be captured, deepening our understanding of best restoration practices and coral reef ecosystems.
