Long-term monitoring of coral reefs of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (C1.2)

Task leader: Dr Hugh Sweatman, Australian Institute of Marine Science.

Task associate: Dr David Wachenfeld, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

The project provides long-term quantitative data on coral reefs spanning much of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Each year, information is gathered on corals, algae, reef fishes from 48 reefs and Crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) are surveyed on about 100 reefs.

The Long-term Monitoring Project is designed to detect changes in reef communities over time at a regional scale. In this context, reefs in a region are those that lie in one of three of three positions across the continental shelf (inshore, mid-shelf, outer shelf) within one band of latitude (a sector).

Surveys by the Long-term Monitoring team involve three tasks; manta tow surveys for crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) and reef-wide coral cover (broadscale surveys), surveys of sessile benthic organisms using video and visual counts of reef fishes. Broadscale surveys cover reefs in 11 sectors. Reefs in six of the sectors are surveyed intensively.

For more information, visit the AIMS website.