Great Barrier Reef Habitat Mapping
To support management and conservation of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), we have created approaches for mapping the shallow reef habitats of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.
Locations
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Australia
People
Chris Roelfsema, Stuart Phinn, Eva Kovacs, Mitchell Lyons, Meredith Roe, Paul Tudman, Kathryn Markey, Emma Kennedy, Chantel Say, Alex Ordonez, Carolina Castro, Rodney Borrego-Acevedo, Daniel Harris, Doddy Yuwono, Atefeh Sansoleimani
Partner Researchers
EOMAP Australia Ltd, Australian Institute of Marine Science
Timeframe
2015 - ongoing
Funding agency
Great Barrier Reef Foundation, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
Summary
The Great Barrier Reef spans 2,300 kilometres and is made up of over 3000 individual reefs. Monitoring and management require a detailed description of the extent, geomorphic zonation and benthic composition of every single reef to support decision-making.
This research is led by the University of Queensland and was initiated in 2015. This work involves the development of habitat maps for every single reef within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP), and combines field data, satellite imagery, and geomorphic data (i.e., depth, slope, waves) with machine learning, object-based analysis and ecologically driven knowledge. These processes result in habitat maps which have detailed information on reef type, geomorphic zonation, benthic composition, and predicted coral type.
In 2021, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) made these maps available through the Reef Knowledge system via GRBMPA as part of Phase 1 for this research. The mapping framework was developed and implemented by the University of Queensland School of the Environment and School of Engineering, the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and EOMAP Ltd. This study builds on two decades of research in this field by the University of Queensland, and from two initial pilot studies conducted in 2015-2016 in the Capricorn Bunker group (20 Reefs) and in 2016-2017 in the Cairns Management Region (237 reefs).
The field work included thousands of geolocated photoquadrats collected over hundreds of reefs and analysed through machine learning (e.g., CoralNet, or AIMS-ReefCloud). All photoquadrats and analyses are publicly accessible through the Pangaea website, see below. Sentinel 2 sea floor reflectance mosaic was determined from a multi temporal image stack. Absolute water depth at mean sea level was calculated and used to determine other physical attributes such as the wave climate (significant Wave height)and slope.
In 2023, phase 2 of this project was initiated. This phase includes developing an improved 3D habitat mapping framework for offshore and inshore reefs. Additionally, a process will be initiated to develop an updated outline for each of the individual reefs. The framework itself will be trialed to also update one of the four management sections with new field data and satellite imagery.
Example of field effort to collect photo quadrate data to train and validate mapping products
Example of geomorphic zonation, benthic composition and coral type map of pilot study for GBR mapping Roelfsema et al 2020. Maps created by integrating Sentinel 2 imagery, Water depth, wave exposure, field photo quadrates and object based machine learning.
Publications
Scientific journals
Alvarez Noriega M.; J. Ortiz; M. Emslie; K. Fabricius; Michelle Jonker; Marji Puotinen; Barbara Robson; Tane Sinclair-Taylor; C.M. Roelfsema R Ferrari Legorreta; Daniela Ceccarelli (2024) Spatial Variation in Upper Limits of Coral Cover on the Great Barrier Reef, Global Ecology and Biogeography https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13928
Cresswell A., V. Haller-Bull, M. Gonzalez-Rivero, J. P Gilmour, Y-M. Bozec, D.R. Barneche, B. Robson, K. Anthony, C. Doropoulos5, C.M. Roelfsema, M. Lyons, P.J Mumby, S. Condie, V. Lago, JC. Ortiz (2024) Capturing fine-scale coral dynamics with a metacommunity modelling framework. Sci Rep 14, 24733 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-73464-y
Castro-Sanguino, C., Y.-M. Bozec, S.A. Condie, C.S. Fletcher, K. Hock, C. Roelfsema, D.A. Westcott, and P.J. Mumby, (2023) Control efforts of crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks to limit future coral decline across the Great Barrier Reef. Ecosphere,. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4580
Roelfsema, C.; Lyons, M.B.; Castro-Sanguino, C.; Kovacs, E.M.; Callaghan, D.; Wettle, M.; Markey, K.; Borrego-Acevedo, R.; Tudman, P.; Roe, M.; Kennedy, E.V.; Gonzalez-Rivero, M.; Murray, N.; Phinn, S.R. How Much Shallow Coral Habitat Is There on the Great Barrier Reef? Remote Sensing. (2021), https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13214343
Lyons, M., C. Roelfsema, E. Kennedy, E. Kovacs, R. Borrego-Acevedo, K. Markey, M. Roe, Y. D. Harris, S.Phinn, G.Asner, J.Li, D.Knapp, N.Fabina, K.Larsen, D.Traganos, N.Murray Mapping the world's coral reefs using a global multiscale earth observation framework. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (2020). https://doi.org/10.1002/rse2.157
Roelfsema, Chris M., Kovacs, Eva M., Ortiz, Juan Carlos, Callaghan, David P., Hock, Karlo, Mongin, Mathieu, Johansen, Kasper, Mumby, Peter J., Wettle Magnus, Ronan, Mike, Lundgren, Petra. Kennedy, Emma V. Phinn, Stuart R. Habitat maps to enhance monitoring and management of the Great Barrier Reef. Coral Reefs (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-020-01929-3
Roelfsema Chris, Eva Kovacs, Juan Carlos Ortiz, Stuart Phinn, Peter Mumby, David Callaghan, Mike Ronan, Nick Wolf, Sarah Hamylton and Magnus Wettle (2018) Characterise Geomorphic Zonation And Benthic Habitat Type in the Southern Great Barrier Reef (GBR) through Ecological Modelling And Remote Sensing Remote Sensing of the Environment, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2018.02.005
Scientific Data
Roelfsema, C. M., E. M. Kovacs, K. Markey and S. R. Phinn (2022). Benthic and substrate cover data derived from field photo-transect surveys for the Mackay to Capricorn management region of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), May/June 2019, PANGAEA.
Roelfsema, C. M., E. M. Kovacs, K. Markey and S. R. Phinn (2022). Benthic and substrate cover data derived from field photo-transect surveys for the Townsville to Whitsunday management region of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), May/June 2019, PANGAEA.
Roelfsema, C. M., E. M. Kovacs, K. Markey and S. R. Phinn (2022). Georeferenced photographs of benthic photoquadrats acquired over seven reefs in the Mackay to Capricorn region of the Great Barrier Reef, May, 2019, PANGAEA.
Roelfsema, Christiaan M; Kovacs, Eva M; Ortiz, Juan Carlos; Callaghan, David P; Johansen, Kasper L; Phinn, Stuart R (2020): Geomorphic zonation and dominant benthic cover type maps for on the shallow offshore reefs of the Cairns to Cooktown Management area of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia (GBRF, UQ). PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.925657
GBR10 GBRMPA Knowledge System GIS files
Satellite mosaic