The Longest and Most Comprehensive Reef Photography Series Over Space and Time
A diver taking a photo of bleached coral on Heron Reef
The University of Queensland is celebrating the longest and most comprehensive reef photography monitoring project in the world.
Since 2002, thousands of underwater and satellite photos have been taken every year and analysed to document the diversity of Heron Reef, located off the central Queensland coast.
Associate Professor Chris Roelfsema from the UQ School of the Environment said the photo series captured coral growth and decline, which were instrumental for researchers following cyclone or bleaching events.
“Thanks to these satellite images and underwater photos, for the first time we have an understanding of how the reefs are changing over time naturally and as a result of impacts,” Dr Roelfsema said.
“If you understand something well and how it changes naturally, you better understand when a reef is threatened or impacted, and how it could be conserved and protected better.
“Each underwater photo is geolocated with a GPS and are then combined with the imagery taken by satellite to create maps.
“We then document the diversity of the environment by creating maps showing where there is sand, rock or coral.
“The verification and mapping approaches used to map and monitor the coral reefs are based on the 20 years of UQ’s experience in reef knowledge, field data and earth observation processes.”
Dr Roelfsema said technology advances had revolutionised the project’s impact with modern cameras being able to take more photos at a higher quality.
“When we started, we had to manually analyse the composition of each photo at a rate of 50 photos per hour,” he said.
“Now we collect thousands of photos on a field trip, can see the results instantly and automatically analyse them for composition at a rate of 1,000 in several hours.”
The work has had global impacts leading to the Allen Coral Atlas project, which digitally mapped every shallow coral reef in the world.
“If you told me 20 years ago our research on Heron Island motivated this, I wouldn’t have believed you,” he said.
Dr Roelfsema said the visible impacts of climate change in the 27 years he had studied the reef surrounding Heron Island was upsetting.
“The diversity of life has reduced and due to climate change-driven impacts the reef has lost healthy coral,” he said.
“The next generation of scientists will see the reefs I have seen, and possibly still be impressed by its beauty, however it’s no comparison to how it was.”
