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Coral reef health database

Science Operations Manager

Reef Check Australia

Posted on 25 February 2010

The Reef Check Australia monitoring program acts as an early warning system for coral community health. Annual surveys provide long-term data that can reveal patterns over time. Trained community volunteers collect quantitative data on the Great Barrier Reef and in the Southeast Queensland coral habitats. Data include substrate percent cover, abundance of key invertebrate species and target fish species. Data on natural and anthropogenic impacts on coral community health are also recorded. The Reef Check method is used which is used in 90 countries world-wide, making these results directly comparable globally.

  • Reef Check Australia
Custodian(s)
  • Reef Check Australia
Owner Institution(s)

Quantitative, integer, discrete (e.g number of fish, invertebrates etc).

Percentage (e.g. percent coral cover)

Categorical (e.g. siltation level: low, medium, high)

Data Units
Great Barrier Reef (Port Douglas to Airlie Beach) and Southeast Queensland (Sunshine Coast to Gold Coast)
Region & Spatial Extent
2001 - 2010
Data Collection
Ongoing - yearly - repeated surveys
Maintenance & Update Frequency
Copyright remains with Reef Check Australia. The data is Public Good but users must acknowledge Reef Check Australia if they use the data. Raw data and other graphed data are available by signing a data user agreement. Please download and sign the data user agreement (pdf) below and send it to support@reefcheckaustralia.org for access to the raw data (free of charge).
Resource Constraints

Done TJ. 1997. Decadal changes in reef-building communities: implications for reef growth and monitoring programs. p 411-416.

Furnas M. 2003. Catchments and Corals: Terrestrial Run-off to the Great Barrier Reef.  Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville. 

Hill J and Wilkinson CR. 2004. Methods for Ecological Monitoring of Coral Reefs: A Resource for Managers. Townsville, Australia, Australian Institute of Marine Science: pp.117.

Hodgson G. 1999. A global assessment of human effects on coral reefs. Marine Pollution Bulletin 38(5):345-355.

Hodgson G. 2000. Coral reef monitoring and management using Reef Check. Integrated Coastal Zone Management 1:169-176.

Hodgson G, Liebeler J. 2002. The Global Coral Reef Crisis: Trends and Solutions. The Reef Check Foundation.  Los Angeles. 77 p.

Hodgson G, Wilkinson C. 2001. Science as a basis for coral reef monitoring programs. Bulletin of Marine Science 69(2):327-328.

References
Google Earth Data
Reports
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