Reliability and utility of citizen science reef monitoring data collected by Reef Check Australia, 2002-2015

Terence Done; Chris Roelfsema; Andrew Harvey; Laura Schuller; Jocelyn Hill; Marie-Lise Schläppy; Alexandra Lea; Anne Bauer-Civiello; Jennifer Loder

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.01.054

Reliability and utility of citizen science reef monitoring data collected by Reef Check Australia, 2002-2015

Mar Pollut Bull. 2017 Apr 15;117(1-2):148-155. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.01.054. Epub 2017 Feb 2.

Authors

Terence Done¹, Chris Roelfsema², Andrew Harvey³, Laura Schuller⁴, Jocelyn Hill⁵, Marie-Lise Schläppy⁶, Alexandra Lea⁷, Anne Bauer-Civiello⁷, Jennifer Loder⁷

Affiliations

¹ Australian Institute of Marine Science, PMB #3, Townsville MC, QLD 4810, Australia; Reef Check Australia, PO Box 13204, George St, Brisbane, QLD 4003, Australia; Museum of Tropical Queensland, 78-102 Flinders St, Townsville, Queensland 4810, Australia. Electronic address: t.done@aims.gov.au.
² Reef Check Australia, PO Box 13204, George St, Brisbane, QLD 4003, Australia; Remote Sensing Research Centre, School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.
³ Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia; MantaWatch, 20-22 Wenlock Road, London, N1 7GU, United Kingdom.
⁴ Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
⁵ Coral Reef Alliance, 1330 Broadway, Suite 1602, Oakland, CA 94612, USA.
⁶ Environmental Research Institute, University of Highlands and Islands, Thurso, UK.
⁷ Reef Check Australia, PO Box 13204, George St, Brisbane, QLD 4003, Australia.

PMID: 28162251
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.01.054

Abstract

Reef Check Australia (RCA) has collected data on benthic composition and cover at >70 sites along >1000km of Australia's Queensland coast from 2002 to 2015. This paper quantifies the accuracy, precision and power of RCA benthic composition data, to guide its application and interpretation. A simulation study established that the inherent accuracy of the Reef Check point sampling protocol is high (<±7% error absolute), in the range of estimates of benthic cover from 1% to 50%. A field study at three reef sites indicated that, despite minor observer- and deployment-related biases, the protocol does reliably document moderate ecological changes in coral communities. The error analyses were then used to guide the interpretation of inter-annual variability and long term trends at three study sites in RCA's major 2002-2015 data series for the Queensland coast.

Keywords: Benthos; Citizen science; Coral monitoring; Great Barrier Reef, subtropical reefs.

MeSH terms

Animals
Anthozoa*
Australia
Community Participation*
Coral Reefs*
Environmental Monitoring / methods*
Queensland
Reproducibility of Results