Page 15: of Marine Technology Magazine (April 2020)

All images: ©Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation/Ken Marks

By Alexandra Dempsey ealthy coral reefs provide The rigorous fve-year scientifc mission coral reef and fsh surveys on SCUBA, and critical ecosystem services for set out to assess the impact of anthropo- over 2,200 km2 of satellite imagery was millions of people globally, genic and natural disturbances on reef eco- collected and interpreted into high-resolu-

Hbut with climate change and systems. Now that the feld research for tion habitat and bathymetry maps. The ul- anthropogenic stressors, the landscape of the Global Reef Expedition is complete, timate goal of the Foundation’s research in these habitats is regularly shifting. The sci- scientists from the Living Oceans Founda- Tonga was to provide scientists, managers, ence and conservation community has re- tion are releasing their fndings. The most and stakeholders with information and rec- alized the importance of baseline studies to recent fndings from the Global Reef Expe- ommendations that could be important for help track how these precious reef ecosys- dition come from the Kingdom of Tonga. creating successful management strategies tems are changing. The Khaled bin Sultan In Tonga, the Foundation quantitatively for coral reef ecosystems.

Living Oceans Foundation launched the measured and categorized coral reef envi-

Global Reef Expedition (GRE)—the larg- ronments in three island systems, Ha’apai,

Assessing the Heath est coral reef survey and mapping expedi- Vava’u, and around the island of Ni- tion in history—to conduct much-needed uatoputapu. This scientifc mission involved of Coral Reefs baseline research on the health and resil- 20 participants from numerous organiza- Scientists on the GRE used a combina- iency of coral reefs. This cornerstone study tions around the world, who worked along- tion of quantitative methods, including belt used standardized sampling methods to re- side scientists representing the government transects, point-intercept transects, and search the ever-dynamic coral reef benthic in Tonga, to gather the highest quality data. photo quadrats, to assess benthic and fsh and fsh communities all over the world. They completed more than 500 benthic communities of reefs in Tonga. This stan- • 1080p HD video

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