How healthy are coral reefs? And how are they responding to climate change? After more than 10 years of monitoring the Great Barrier Reef, University of Sydney geoscientists have developed a technique that allows them to answer these questions using satellites. And it all relies on sand aprons.
It turns out that sand aprons, deposits of sand along the shore of a lagoon that are ubiquitous in coral reefs, can give a reliable estimate of how coral reefs are growing as well as their rate of carbonate sediment productivity – key to establishing their overall health.
“The traditional way of collecting such data is very work intensive,” said Associate Professor Ana Vila-Concejo, who led the study, published today in the journal Geology. “It requires actively measuring the chemistry of water or taking thousands upon thousands of photos to calculate how much each creature in the ecosystem is contributing to carbonate sediment productivity.”
Read More at: The University of Sydney
Sand aprons at One Tree Island, Great Barrier Reef. (Photo Credit: Amaia Ruiz de Alegria-Arzaburu/ University of Sydney)