Ecological intelligence and monitoring
April 16, 2024
Session
Ecological intelligence and monitoring are essential to underpin effective reef protection and restoration initiatives. Improving knowledge on mortality, growth and recovery of reef-building corals, alongside abundance, distribution and mortality of the coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish, is critical to informing how, why, where and when reef restoration and COTS control actions are deployed. Presentations in this session will highlight new empirical knowledge on reef-building corals and crown-of-thorns starfish, while also describing emerging tools for mapping the recruitment, growth, recovery and survival of corals across the life-cycle. Topics in this session will also provide insight into the design of monitoring programs to address multiple objectives, and advances in metrics that move beyond measuring coral cover to a wholistic understanding of the indicators of coral reef health.
